Building the future
by Buffy Anne Halliwell
Summary: ABC crossover, Angel, Buffy, Charmed. Visitors come from the future because it's being changed, they want to make things as they're supposed to be. The First and The Source return.
1. Chapter 1

**This takes event 1 year after the end of Buffy's 7th season, and at the very last episodes of Charmed and Angel.  
The only different things are that Paige and Henry aren't married, they've only been dating; and Leo is still a Whitelighter**

**-------------------------**

Rome.

Dawn was in her apartment eating when she heard the sound of keys at the door. She turned around in time to see her sister coming through the door.

"Hi Buffy." greeted Dawn to her sister.

"Hey… I'm starving." said Buffy while taking a slice of the cold pizza Dawn was eating from, "Any news on the others?"

"Willow called from the airport, she and Kennedy will be here tomorrow, that's all I know."

"Fine, I'll be here tomorrow all day in case they call before arriving, but tonight I'm out, don't wait up." Said Buffy, chewing her slice of pizza.

"With the Immortal again? With those manners you'll scare him away."

"Please, he's seen worse things, besides I'm all charming when I'm with him."

At sunset, there was a knock on the door and Dawn got up to answer it. There was a mature, good-looking man who Dawn has called the Immortal ever since she met him. That's how everyone knew him, and sometimes she wondered what Buffy called him.

"Hi, she'll be here any minute now, come on in." said Dawn. The quiet man entered and took a seat but as soon as Dawn closed the door Buffy came down the stairs.

"Ready!" she said walking to the man and giving the man a quick kiss on the lips. Soon they were outside.

They were hanging out as usual. He'd been really nice to her, and she felt comfortable with him even though Dawn didn't completely like him. According to Dawn, ever since Buffy and this Immortal met, she'd changed, and not exactly for good. But Buffy was happy with him so she didn't put too much stock in what Dawn said, although her sister's opinion mattered to her. Buffy thought she might have a thing for immortal beings.

They went to a night club that was nothing like the Bronze. This one was fancy, sort of a VIPs Only place, and because the Immortal was so important he was not only allowed to be here but asked to be. He and Buffy were at a table in the corner, and from a distance a young couple could be seen watching them. The young man, of around 24 years old, asked the girl next to him, "Is that her? And you can't say no because it's kinda obvious."  
"Yes she is … and what do you mean by obvious?" asked the 19 year old girl.  
"Well I mean, look at her, she's… I mean… the way she looks…" stuttered the man while staring at Buffy wide eyed. The girl slapped his shoulder softly.  
"Hey! I'm right here. Don't make me jealous! Besides, how can you see her that way, I mean… please!"

The couple watched Buffy and the Immortal a little longer but they were soon becoming bored. After waiting some more a suited man approached the Immortal and whispered something in his ear. The Immortal looked annoyed and then turned to Buffy.  
"I hate when this happens, I have to take care of a business, it's important and it can't wait, you understand right?" He asked Buffy gently. She responded in the same gentle way.  
"Yeah I understand, don't worry."  
"I can take you home."  
"No it's fine, it's been a long while since the last time I had a quiet walk, just me and myself, you go get your business done, I'll see you tomorrow."  
They kissed one another before departing in opposite directions. As soon as Buffy walked out of the club the couple that was watching her, followed.

After a couple of blocks, Buffy could sense that someone was behind her but when she turned and saw nothing, she kept walking. Her senses were now on high alert as she walked a little faster. She turned into an alley making the couple lose her for a second. Once they reached the alley Buffy grabbed the man by the neck and pushed him against the wall, and with an angry look she stared him right in the eyes.  
"Ok, spill, who the hell are you and what do you want?" She demanded.

The man was gasping for air and the girl grabbed Buffy by the shoulders and pulled her away from her partner. Buffy could feel the strength this girl exhibited and she stared at the mysterious girl, unable to hide her surpise.  
The girl stared at her with her hands up showing no intention of attacking.

"Who are you two, and you… you remind me of… me." said Buffy confused.  
"I can explain it… mom."  
"Hey, I told you to be subtle!" snapped the guy in frustration.

Buffy looked in shock at the girl, speechless, the only sound that came out of her mouth was a light "huh?"

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San Francisco.

The Halliwells were at the Manor. Paige and Phoebe were in the dinning room while Piper walked to the table carrying the Book of Shadows.

"Don't tell me we have to fight a demon" Paige said to her oldest sister.  
"No, but I think we should write all what happened the last 8 years; to have a transcription for future generations as there was a transcript for us."

The three smiled and Phoebe started writing her experiences. After she finished, Paige took the book and finally Piper took her turn. They all wrote how their lives had changed since they discovered their powers.  
Once they were done Piper closed the book and sighed.  
"Well, now it's time to relax finally after all these years."  
"Yay for that." replied Paige.  
"But you know… I think I'm going to miss the surprises…" before she had finished talking she was interrupted by two people orbing in and the sisters stared at the new arrivals.  
"…Or maybe not." continued Phoebe.  
The sisters stood up with happy faces mixed with worried looks. Piper was the one who spoke first.  
"Chris! What are you doing here?"  
"Hi mom… aunts…"

--------------------------------  
Rome.

Buffy was still speechless, not sure what to do or say, the three of them stood there in silence, until the silence was finally broken.

"Hold on! I mean… how… Is this a joke? I think I would remember having kids, and, look at you! You're almost an adult and…"  
"Calm down, we'll explain."  
"This should be interesting." mumbled Buffy before noticing that the guy was looking her from head to toe several times. "And what exactly are you looking at?"  
"Ah… sorry Mrs. Summers, err… Miss Summers, is just that you two are so alike!"  
"We come from the future, something changed in the past… this present, and we came back here to fix it. We have to undo whatever the First and the Source did to you, and dad.  
"Shh… remember not to reveal too much of the future, you may change it even more." whispered the guy to the girl.  
"You lost me right after the mom part…" Buffy said thoughtful looking to her so called daughter straight in the eyes looking for any sign whether to trust her or not.  
"Ok, I'll just say that things aren't the way they should be, something has changed for some reason and in the future. In my present I'm fading away…disappearing."  
"Things aren't what they're supposed to be? So what, do I have to change all my lifestyle just so that my unborn child can go back to who knows what kind of future? Oh, yeah sure, anything else you need to change?"  
"And you complain about my sarcasm." mumbled the girl  
"It's just that, from my point of view, things haven't been this good for years, and as far as I know you could be an evil mini-me, evil little Buffy junior."  
"No worries, I'm not evil; also I'm not called Buffy, most people call me Anne."  
"Mm'kay… so, let's say I believe you, which I'm not saying I do but what was that thing you said about The First and the … the sauce?  
"The Source." said the guy who had been quiet most of the time.

-------------------------------  
Los Angeles.

Angel wanted to know if Wesley, Lorne, Gunn, and Spike were in for wiping out the Circle of the Black Thorn. They all agreed.  
Gunn wondered if they would just kill them all at once but Angel told them that the Circle was the most powerful group on Earth as a unit, but separated they were simply demons. They will have to make their move soon but they need to make it seem as if they are against each other.

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San Francisco.

The sisters knew that grown up Chris doesn't make social visits to the past and so they are able to assume that something is wrong.

"Don't tell me we screwed your future again." said Phoebe, exasperated. She received a puzzled glance from Chris.  
"You were here yesterday with Wyatt, and told us that your future got screwed."  
"Ah yeah I remember now, that was my one-year-ago-self, but anyhow I came to see you while Wyatt takes care of something."  
"And who's this lovely young woman?" asked Paige pointing to the brunette, with wavy long hair standing close to him.  
"Hi I'm Nikky, it's a pleasure to meet you… again, sorry this is confusing…"  
"Nikky, are you a future daughter-in-law of mine?" asked Piper as if judging.  
"Eh,… no, I mean, we're in the getting to know each other part, I'm a friend of Wyatt's girlfriend."

Piper was about to ask more questions when she saw another orb revealing Wyatt and a black haired girl shorter than Nikky.  
"Chris, we have problems… oh, hi all." said Wyatt.  
"I assume this is your girlfriend… Hello, I'm Phoebe Halliwell." Phoebe added with a smile.  
"Anne Summers." The girl replied.

They all headed to the living room to talk but not before calling Leo. Wyatt explained why they were there.

"Well, in the future two different evil powers are working together. The powers have been defeated before, once by you, and the other by Anne and Nikky's parents. One of the powers is the Source… in a new body, and the other calls itself The First Evil. So far we've fought against all the enemies they've sent and we were about to defeat them for good, but unfortunately they found a way to come to the past. Anne first lost her powers, and at times she seemed to be fading away. We cast a spell to see why this was happening and we found out that the evil duet is changing history, we went to see Anne's mother and for what we know so far, the way things are being changed is by keeping Anne's parents apart from each other… way apart, in different continents, and if evil succeeds Anne will disappear. We think that the next would be Nikky and, if so, nobody will lead the Slayers and our chances to stand against evil will be minimal if we have any chance at all."

"And who exactly are you two, and who are your parents." asked Piper to the girls.

"We're Slayers, by heritage and by birth right, you can say we're double blessed and cursed."  
Anne was interrupted by Paige "What do you mean by heritage and birth right… and what about the blessing and curse part?"

"Well," the girl continued "the heritage part is because both of our mothers are Slayers. It was supposed to be only one each generation. My mom got the call, then she died for a couple of minutes but that was enough for the next Slayer to be activated. That Sayer died after a year and the next one came to scene, Nikky's mother. Twenty one years ago, I mean, one year ago from now, my mom and her friends, along with a bunch of potential slayers, fought against the First Evil. With the help of a Scythe, a mythic Slayer's weapon, a powerful wiccan witch transformed every potential Slayer in the world into real Slayers and that was the end of only one Slayer into every generation. That leads to the part of us being Slayers by birth right, because Willow, the wiccan, casts a spell every now and then to find new potentials and in one of those spells she found out that we both were potentials. We were chosen to be Slayers, not because of our mothers, but because destiny, so both of our genes and destinies have the Slayer mark."

"And the bless and curse thing," resumed Nikky, "is because it's great to have Slayer powers and help the world, but on the other hand is hard to give up your normal life and change it to a life full of supernatural thingies."

"I heard about that." said Leo. "During the last year several girls around the world discovered they had super strength."

"So other than super strength which other powers do you have." asked Phoebe.

"Nothing magical like you, our powers focus more on strength, speed, reflexes, accelerated healing and in some cases, prophetic dreams." Said Anne.

"So I guess that in order to defeat the Source and the First, we have to help your parents first." resumed Wyatt.

"You're right hun."

"Well, family, we have to go" said Wyatt while standing up along with Chris, Anne and Nikky.

"Whoa whoa whoa, where you think you're goin'? You can't expect that we'll remain sit here after what you've told us." said Phoebe standing next to her nephews.  
"She's right." said Piper. "Our fights are done so we have space to help the next generation with their own fights."

"You don't have to, are you sure?" responded Chris.

"Absolutely, we're family aren't we?" reasoned Paige.

Leo nodded in agreement before staring up as if hearing something. He then said he'd be back soon before orbing away.

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Reviews are welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

Rome.

Buffy walked around the city thinking about what had just happened. She didn't know what worried her the most, the fact that things weren't going the way they should be, or the fact that the First was active again along with the Source. She was also troubled with the fact that this girl claimed to be her daughter from the future. She wasn't sure if she believed any of this, but part of her did believe due to the connection she felt with the girl, the only other person that gives her that closeness feeling is Dawn.

"I should have asked her who her dad was… is… will be… whatever." She wondered out loud.

After more than an hour walking she decided to head home. It took her about 30 minutes to get to her place where a worried Dawn was waiting in the living room. As soon as Buffy opened the door her sister let out a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong Dawn, is everything ok?" asked alarmed the older Summers.

"Well, you tell me, I've been here worrying about you for the last hour! Where've you been?" Ranted the teen

"You know where I was."

"Your Immortal boyfriend came here an hour ago looking for you. He said that he returned to the club to find you when he'd finished something and you weren't there anymore. He assumed that you were here already."

"I took a walk." Buffy looked at her watch and grinned sheepishly. "A long walk."

"So… is everything fine? You seem distracted."

"I met someone right after I left the Club…" said Buffy thoughtfully.

"Oh my God, are you cheating on your boyfriend?!"

"What?!...No!... looks like I met my… daughter…"

"Yeah right, now spill, who's the guy? Is he another immortal being?"

"Drop it! I'm telling you, it was so weird, two guys were following me, I questioned them, the girl was strong, slayer-y strong, and she looked like me, well, 'cept for the dark hair… and age difference… it was like I was seeing myself."

"And was it real? I mean, it could be a glamour."

"A part of me thinks it's an hoax, but on the other hand, I felt as if I could trust them… well at least trust her, I didn't feel any connection with the guy. I had the same feeling with her as I have when I'm with you, or when I was with mom, part of me believes what she said, but the logical side of me tells me to be careful."

"Hm… since when do you have a logical side?"

"Dawn, I'm not joking."

"Me neither! You've always been the kind of person that trusts her instincts and follows her heart. Leave the logical part to people like Giles, whom if were here, would ask where did she come from?"

"They told me they came from the future, twenty years in the future to be precise, and that she, a friend of her, her boyfriend, his brother and cousins fight together against the First and something called the Source… family business I guess."

"But, you defeated the First, and what's the Source?"

"Yes, we defeated the First and closed the Hellmouth but we just stopped its plan, we didn't destroy it. In the future it's back with a powerful friend, the Source, who's some sort of leader of evil, a dark power that posses the body of whoever it chooses. Even demons fight against each other in order to hold the position of the Source, that Source was defeated too, by the Charmed ones."

"The who ones?"

"Three powerful witches, and seems that we're going to meet them some time in the future, my… daughter" Buffy giggled a little. "Daughter, I feel strange saying it… so, my daughter's boyfriend is the son of one of the Charmed ones."

"Son of a Charmed…. Looks like a job for the Scooby Gang!"

"It's a good thing that we'll all gather soon, I want to ask Willow if there's a spell to travel trough time. If the Charmed ones are involved or a power like theirs, they could had done a spell to send them here and now."

"So… I'll be an Aunty! Don't tell me that the Immortal's going to be my brother in law." The last part sounded as disappointment.

"Actually I don't know."

"At least did she tell you her name?"

"Anne… well she said that people call her Anne."

"Call her? Maybe you named her Buffy and she doesn't like that name."

"Leave my name alone! Besides, she told me her name isn't Buffy, plus I haven't named anyone yet."

---------------  
Los Angeles.

Leo orbed into an alley. The Elders had called him to inform him to be careful, because something big was starting in Los Angeles and may extend to other cities and soon the world if nobody stops it.

"Evil's attacking so be prepared just in case it spreads." is all they told him.

"Real helpful." He muttered as he walked down the alley.

Even though they told him to stay away he decided to see for himself what was happening. He heard growls coming from everywhere. Carefully he walked through the streets and saw a group of demons. He watched them and realized that more demons were on another avenue and that they were all heading in the same direction.  
He orbed to a rooftop to get a better view, and saw four people facing the direction where the demons were heading. As soon as he figured out that the four persons started fighting the army of demons he orbed back to the Manor.

-----------------  
San Francisco.

"What's the problem? You look worried," Piper asked her husband when he orbed in.

"Something strange is happening in L.A, there's…demons everywhere."

"Los Angeles…" whispered Anne barely audible, then out loud she continued. "We have to go there!"

The sisters and Leo stared at her, confused.

"What? You don't just jump into battle with who knows how many demons without a plan!" Piper said.

"Well, we do!" responded Nikky. "Now come on."

"Don't worry, we're kinda used to this." said Chris calmly to his mother.

Chris and Wyatt grab Anne and Nikky and orbed out of the Manor.

"So… what do we do?" Paige asked.

"Leo, let's go with them." Piper hurriedly told Leo as she took his hand ready to orb. "Watch Wyatt and Chris while we go help their older selves." Piper ordered her sisters; and with some hesitation Leo orbed them both to L.A.

"Okay then, I guess that answers my question…"


	3. Chapter 3

Rome.

It was ten am in the morning; a brunette was walking through a corridor in the airport carrying two cups of coffee. She walked to a table where another woman was talking on her cell phone and smiled lightly at the brunette when she placed a cup of coffee in front of her.

"So what's the plan Will?" asked the brunette right after her partner hung up.

"They'll be here in a while, Giles just told me his flight landed an hour ago and that he was going to rent a vehicle," replied the red head at the same time she was writing a text message. "What do you wanna do while the others get here?" resumed Willow placing the phone on the table.

Somewhere else, not far from where the women were, Xander was exiting a plane, stretching his arms above his head, anxious to step on land after a flight that took several hours. At the end of the stairs he stepped aside so that people could pass him, he took out his cell phone from his pocket to turn it on and as soon as he did it, he heard a tone coming from it.

Coming down the stairs of the plane, a couple with a baby looked around and spotted Xander who was looking at the display of his phone.

"Kennedy and Will are here already," informed Xander to the couple that was now standing next to him.

They headed inside the airport to pick their luggage.

Meanwhile after some minutes Willow and Kennedy were checking out the souvenir stands.

"How long do you think we have to wait?" asked Kennedy sounding impatient.

"I'm not sure, I sent a message to Xander but he hasn't replied yet," answered taking out her phone to check it, "Maybe he didn't get it,"

"I'm pretty sure he got it but wanted to surprise you," interrupted a male voice coming from behind, she turned and immediately smiled widely and hugged her best friend, "Xander!" called cheerfully, "Faith, Robin!" greeted looking at the couple; Willow's attention got caught by a baby in Faith's arms, "And who would this cutie be!" wondered while lifting the blanket to see the baby's face.

"This is our daughter," answered proudly Robin.

"How sweet, what's her name?"

"We called her after my mother, Nikky"

"Say hello to the next generation of Scoobies," joked Xander.

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Los Angeles

Wyatt, Anne, Chris and Nikky orbed close to what was left of Wolfram & Hart.

"Looks like the party is over," whispered Anne looking the rubble around.

Not long after they arrived, Leo and Piper orbed behind them, Nikky was the first to turn around, Piper noticed she seemed shocked, and she wasn't looking at her or her husband, but something else, Piper looked behind her and her eyes grew wide, out from a crashed elevator, demons were coming out, some of them were even crawling through the walls.

When the rest of the group turned around immediately started to run, "Come on!" yelled Wyatt at her parents.

Noticing that the demons were close behind, Chris nodded at his brother and then grabbed Nikky's hand, orbing both away, Wyatt did the same thing with Anne not before telling his parents to follow.

They orbed to safety to the top of the Hyperion Hotel, but that safety feeling didn't last long, they look over the edge down to an alley, four persons were fighting the horde of demons, "Well, we're going to need a lot of help this time," commented Nikky looking shocked at the fight.

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Rome

The scoobies were waiting outside the Airport, Giles called them to tell them he'll pick them up.

Moments later a white van parked nearby, Giles came out of it waving to the others, taking their belongings they all headed to the van, greeted each other and put their cases inside, soon they were on their way to the Summers' department.

----------------------

Los Angeles

"Are you sure you know where we're going? I'm pretty sure we've been in this street a couple of times!" complained Piper.

"It's here somewhere…" replied quietly Anne.

"You said that long ago." Responded Piper.

"Things look different, but I'm pretty sure it exists by now."

"What exists."

"A ha! There it is, see? I knew we were close." Said Anne triumphantly pointing to a small building.

"I guess we didn't find it because it's not yet the huge installation we're used to see" added Nikky sounding tired.

"And couldn't you just remember by looking at the rest of the buildings? Is it that different in the future?" ranted Piper.

"Well, we never walk to get here, we got used to just orb in." justified Chris.

"Great, my sons are lazy,"

They step at the entrance of a two story building that from the outside seemed abandoned.

Anne knocked a couple of times, without response, hesitantly she pushed the door trying to open it, she almost fell down when someone inside suddenly opened it and without being able to react, they were all held by girls.

"Hey, back off! We're on your side!" exclaimed Nikky trying to break free, "Who's in charge here!"

"That would be me," a female voice echoed from inside, a young woman stepped close to them, "Are you two slayers?" asked noticing that her slayers were having problems holding the newcomers.

"Yes, we are," replied Nikky while struggling with the Slayers.

Anne stopped struggling when she saw the face of the woman in charge recognizing her, "Rona we need your help!"

"How do you…"

"Know your name? We received the monthly Slayer's newsletter," replied with sarcastic tone.

Rona threw a puzzled look at Anne, then she looked closer, noticing the resemblance with certain senior Slayer she lightly nodded to the slayers that were holding them all, as if hearing an order they released them.

"If this is a trap you'll regret it," replied threatening.

"Paranoid much?" mumbled Nikky arranging her jacket.

"What is this place? What are we doing here?" wondered Piper as she and the others were following Rona through a hall.

"This will be a Slayers central in the future," whispered Chris.

They reached the top of a stair, Rona walked downstairs followed by the others who were expecting to see a dirty basement judging by the look of the rest of the building, but to their surprise it was all the opposite, it looked as if several people lived there, it had all the basic stuff to live comfortable, plus a huge room that seemed like a gym.

Rona guided the visitors to a small room; there were screens in there, where the surroundings of the building could be monitored.

"Whoa, never judge a book by its cover," told Chris to himself.

"Speak," commanded Rona sitting on a chair while staring at the screens.

Nikky lightly pushed Anne forward, making it clear that she didn't want to be the speaker, "Well, Rona we're here to ask for your help, there's a battle…" started to explain Anne but Rona interrupted, "we know, a group of Slayers were send not long ago to do some recon," answered Rona still with her eyes on the screens.

"Good, that's good, then I guess we should probably go and join them in the fight."

"There's no fighting yet, first they'll evaluate the situation, and then we'll make a plan, nothing rushed, I don't want the girls be lead to a trap and die."

"Like in the vineyard… it was a vineyard, wasn't it?"

Rona looked wide eyed at Anne wondering how she could know about that, she didn't remember seeing her as a potential back in Sunnydale.

"Get over it," continued Anne, "look, if you don't want to go and kick some demon ass is fine, but at least do you have a way to contact Buffy?"

Rona just nodded and pointed to a phone over a small table, "she's under the B."

Anne frowned before noticing an address book placed next to the phone.

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Rome

The phone rang at the Summers' apartment, Dawn ran to answer it, a girl asked to speak to Buffy, the youngest Summers called her sister who came out from her room,

"She only said she's a Slayer, and needs to talk to you," informed in a serious tone handing the phone to her sister.

With a worried look Buffy took the phone, "Hello?"

"Hey mo… Buffy, there's a situation goin' on here in LA, we need your help,"

"We? We Who?.... Anne?"

"Yes it's me, listen, an army of demons is attacking, Angel's fighting back but if nobody helps him he'll surely die."

"But what do you expect me to do? I can't go right now, by the time I get there it'll be way too late,"

"Don't worry about that; just tell me if you're willing to help him… he needs you."

"What do you want me to do," answered Buffy after being silent for a short time.

"Just wait for us." Said Anne before hanging up.

Buffy stood blankly, unsure of what to do next.

"What is it?" asked Dawn, but before she could get an answer, blue and white lights appeared in the middle of the room, both Summers stared amazed how from the lights two persons appeared, Dawn didn't recognize any of them, whereas Buffy simply said "Hi Anne…" still impressed of how they just appeared out of nowhere.

"Wow!... That was cool!" added Dawn enthusiastically.

"We don't have time, let's go, do you have the scythe?"

Buffy nods, "how did you guys do that?"

"We orbed," responded Wyatt.

"Oh… how did you do that?" asked again more confused.

"A magical thingy," simplified Anne "Now let's go to L.A… oh hi Dawn, I'm Anne, I just called you, and this is Wyatt" waved casually at her future aunt who waved back with a quiet smile.

Buffy took the scythe from a shelf and stood next to Wyatt.

"Ready?" asked Wyatt.

"Not really. Dawn stay here, if there's an army of demons I want you away from them,"

"But…"

"No buts, also I want you to stay in case the others call or something."

"Ok… take care… all of you."

The others nodded, Wyatt took Buffy and Anne by the hands and orbed away; at the same time there was a knock on the door, Dawn opened it and was surprised by a one eyed man who hugged her tightly as soon as he saw her.

"How's my girl!" greeted the man.

"Xander!... guys!"

After everybody greeted Faith and Wood introduced their daughter to Dawn, and Giles asked for Buffy.

"She just left, to L..A." answered Dawn.

"When?" asked Willow.

"Right before you arrived."

"We didn't see her leaving the place," asked Xander.

"She kinda disappeared with someone, I don't know exactly what happened but I know it's magic," replied vaguely.

-----------------

Los Angeles

Wyatt, Anne, and Buffy orbed back with the others, after a quick introduction, Rona joined them, and informed that more demons joined the battle, and that one of the four fighters is gone already.

"Who…" asked Buffy fearful of the answer.

"I don't know, of the fighters I only recognized Spike, and we assumed that the other vampire is Angel, there were two others, but we don't know who they were, one man and a strange… blue woman, the guy is a goner now," explained Rona to the group, Buffy and Anne had the same confused look.

"Hold on… Spike?" wondered Buffy.

"Yes, I was surprised to see him, the last time I saw him was in Sunnydale, I thought he died back then" said Rona.

"But… he… he did …" mumbled Buffy.

"Is… is Angel a… vampire?" asked Anne, shocked.

"You want to help not knowing who they are?" asked Piper.

"I know them, but… ok, less talk, more fighting, explanations can wait," resumed Anne.

"Agreed," added Buffy walking away, scythe in hand.

"Wait, we'll go too," said Rona, pointing to a group of Slayers, armed and ready.

Soon the whole group orbed away and, in no time, were standing close to the Hyperion Hotel.

As soon as they arrived, demons started to attack; the Slayers split in small groups attacking as many demons as they could.

Buffy and Anne were opening their way to reach Spike and Angel, but the closer they got, the more demons they had to face making it difficult for any of them to reach the ensouled vampires.

Nikky stayed with Wyatt, Chris and their parents. Piper was blowing every demon that dared to attack her. Leo was keeping an eye on the Slayers, ready to heal when necessary, Wyatt was blowing up demons too, Chris used his power to throw them away, against the walls or the floor.

Rona was leading her slayers on the attack watching everyone's back, soon she was glad to spot Vi and another group of Slayers joining the fight.

Illyria defeated the demons that were surrounding her and Gunn who was lying on the floor, not moving, when no demons were close, Illyria kneeled close to him and checked on his pulse, feeling nothing; she stayed there for a little while and then continued to fight.

Angel was running through the rooftops chasing a dragon, when he was close enough he jumped to its back, and with his sword Angel stabbed the dragon, it took him more stabs to defeat it, making both fell down; Angel jumped and held on to the edge of a rooftop right before the dragon hit the ground killing a bunch of demons in the process.

From where Angel was hanging, he spotted the groups of girls fighting; he immediately assumed they were Slayers. He watched each one of the groups, hoping to see the only Slayer he cares about.

Down at the alley, Spike killed a reptile-like demon, then he looked around noticing for the first time the girls and women fighting, he could recognize a few of them, including Rona and Vi, and by instinct he started to look at each one of them wanting to know if certain blonde was amongst them.

He saw Angel climbing down, jumping easily as if it were a small steps instead of buildings; as soon as he reached the bottom Angel started running in one direction, no demon was capable to block his path, Spike looked at the direction he was running to, and saw Buffy, or at least someone he taught was her, he opened his way to that direction too.

The two vampires were getting close to where Buffy was, but demons got in the way.

Buffy was surrounded; she attacked them with the scythe, but she wasn't worried about herself, she was worried about Anne, in the middle of the fight they split and there was no sign of her.

"Wyatt!" she yelled at him, "where's Anne?!" asked in a worried tone.

Wyatt just shook his head, Buffy could see he was worried too, but he wasn't able to do much to look for her, he was handing more demons as well.

It was as if it didn't matter how many demons were defeated, more demons were coming, making everyone get tired, Leo was doing what he could to heal the wounded.

Piper called her sisters, but even with the Power of Three, they couldn't defeat all the demons at once.

Angel lost sight of Buffy again, once he finished with his opponents he looked around; not far away he saw someone lying on the floor, it was a dead demon, but beneath him, there was another body, he reached them, moved the demon's body away and hurriedly checked on the pulse of the bruised young woman, she was alive but weak and wounded, she had some blood on her face, her eyes were closed.

"B…Buffy?" called Angel softly, holding the young woman in his arms, he wasn't sure if it was her, she was different in some ways, including the scent, but if it wasn't her, she was very alike.

"Oh God! Anne!" Angel could hear a familiar voice coming from behind; he turned around and saw Buffy rushing towards them, kneeling opposite Angel next to Anne.

"Buffy?" asked Angel aloud, looking down at the girl in his arms and back at Buffy, "Who's she?"

Buffy looked at him, not sure of what to say.

"She's…" she was starting to talk but Wyatt interrupted her, he ran to his girlfriend's side as soon as he saw her, when he reached he called Leo so he could heal her.

Both Angel and Buffy watched in awe how magically all the wounds started to disappear. Slowly Anne opened her eyes, all of her wounds were healed but she was weak, and she looked barely conscious, she looked around and weakly smiled at the persons nearby, Buffy and Angel were still kneeling beside her.

"Mom… dad… you're ok… I'm glad," was all she said before passing out. Buffy and Angel shared a confused look.

"She's pretty weak, probably confused us with someone else," explained Angel more to himself.

"Actually I 'm not sure about that…" said Buffy.

"Buffy," a male voice called, she looked up.

"Spike…" whispered in shock.

Spike stood there looking at both Buffy and Anne amazed by the semblance. Buffy looked at him and back to Angel, trying to clear her thoughts and feelings that were rushing inside of her.


	4. Chapter 4

Buffy stared at the two ensouled vampires, confusion rushing through her mind. For one side she was happy for having both of them close to her, and on the other side she was wondering how was it possible that Spike was there, and yet on top of that, why did Anne called Angel dad?

"We need a plan!" Buffy heard one of the Halliwell sisters approaching.

"Paige's right" added the other sister, bringing Buffy out of her train of thoughts.

"Fine, listen," continued Angel standing up, "their leaders were defeated, they're unorganized, if we can find out where they're coming from we can work out a way to stop them for good somehow… and my first guess is that they're coming from Wolfram & Hart…"

"We could use some back up… " whispered Buffy looking around at the battle, it was worse than it looked down in the Hellmouth when they faced the First, at least back then the battle was contained mostly underground , but here, buildings around were nothing but rubble, bodies were lying all around, mostly demons, but also some slayers found their end in this fight; at least the city hadn't been destroyed yet so there was still hope of winning without making another crater.

"Wyatt," called Buffy, "Please take Anne back to my place, and ask Dawn if she has any words on the others, hopefully they'll be able to help us here."

Wyatt nodded to the Senior Slayer, carried Anne and orbed away.

"We should go to Wolfram & Hart," suggested Chris, "we can use a containment spell to stop the demons from coming."

The Halliwells agreed to his suggestion.

"I'll go with you," suggested Buffy "to watch your backs while you're doing the spell thingy".

"I'll go too," added Spike quietly, staring to the blonde.

"No!" commanded Buffy louder than she intended, "is ok… Spike… some slayers can back us up, you're needed here, to prevent the demons spread… help Angel…" she wanted to stay away from the vampires for now, knowing that she wouldn't be able to focus on the fight with any of them by her side.

Spike hesitantly agreed; he wanted to be with her, after all his feelings were still there. But he understood her decision.

The Halliwells started running towards W&H trying not to be spotted by demons, Buffy called Nikky and other three slayers that were close by and asked them to come.

-----------

Rome

Before appearing in the Summers' place, Wyatt sensed several people in there, but he knew there was no risk of exposure due to the fact that in the future he knows all the scoobies, and can sense them, that's because he knows they're the ones who are with Dawn.

He orbs in the middle of the living room, the scoobies immediately stood up on guard.

Dawn recognized the peculiar white and blue lights, she hoped to see her sister, but she grew concerned when she saw her future niece on Wyatt's arms.

"Oh God, what happened?! Is she ok? … where's Buffy?" Asked Dawn worriedly.

"She's still in LA, she asked me to bring Anne here, she got hurt, she'll be fine but she's unconscious" replied Wyatt while lying Anne on one of the couches.

"Am I the only one who's not following this?" interrupted Xander.

"He's Wyatt, the guy I told you about, and the girl is supposed to be Buffy's daughter from the future," explained Dawn.

Earlier, right after Buffy left, when the scoobies arrived, Dawn told them what happened so far, so it was easy for Wyatt to get their help, soon everyone took some of Buffy's weapons, Dawn stayed behind to watch little Nikky and Anne.

-------------------

Los Angeles

In no time, Wyatt sensed his family, they were already hidden outside the Wolfram & Hart building; he, along with the scoobies orbed behind the others. Buffy was pleased to see her friends, but went straight to business.

"So, B, I see you've been partying without us," said Faith in a way of greeting.

"What can I say, I didn't want you guys miss all the fun," replied the blonde.

"Buffy, do you think you can distract the demons from coming near from us? We need to be close to the hot spot to do the spell," asked Piper.

"Sure, just try to make it fast," answered Buffy

"What kind of spell will you do? Maybe I can help" added Willow

"We'll lock them all in" replied Phoebe watching as Buffy, the Scoobies and the Slayers walked away, leaving Willow with them knowing that the witch would want to work along with the Charmed ones.

The Charmed ones started chanting, and to make the spell stronger they were using Chris, Wyatt and Willow's magic powers as well, a few demons saw them and prepared to attack but were intercepted by the Scoobies.

When the chanting ended, a white light covered the place, the already destroyed building started to collapse, debris was falling everywhere.

"Everybody run!" screamed Wyatt, he knew that orbing out was faster, but everybody were spread so he wouldn't be able to orb them all at once

The demons were trying to get out, but it was useless, an unseen force was pulling them inside and underground.

When the scoobies and the Charmed ones were safe outside, they watched how the white light spread through the streets right to where Angel, Spike and the others were still fighting, and soon the rest of the Demons were pulled underground as well.

By the time the last demon got locked, the building was completely destroyed.

Exhausted, Angel, Spike, Ilyria and the Slayers joined the others.

"Well, we didn't destroy the town this time, this went well," said Xander to no one in particular.

"Your idea of attracting all the demons to this place worked well Willow," told Piper to the redhead who felt flattered.

"Yeah well, I just thought, it would save us from fighting and cleaning up the mess…"

"Works for me" added Buffy.

"Even that, some demons are still free," said Rona coming from behind, followed by Vi and their Slayers squads who were all ready with weapons in hand.

"We'll take care of them" concluded Vi, she nodded to Rona and the Slayers and walked away, then she turned back to the others "it was good to see you all again" added with a smile before following Rona.

"Yeah, you to, take care," replied Buffy watching them leave.

"They grow up so fast," added Faith in a teasing voice wiping an imaginary tear.

"They sure do" continued Xander, "but there's something that's bothering me…I was on a plane for hours to get to Rome, and then in a puff I'm back in the ol'US!"

"Guess we can all go back to Rome, do a little catch up" suggested Buffy "we really need to catch up" added staring at Angel and Spike.

"Now that everything's over, there's not much left to be done here," said Angel.

As soon as Angel finished the sentence, Spike felt something going through his body; he tried to control himself but screamed because of the pain drowning everybody's attention, he collapsed on the floor, Buffy kneeled next to him, unsure of what to do, she was about to put her hand over his shoulder when he gasped for air and put his hand over his chest, he looked up and got covered with a blue light making Buffy stand back.

When the light faded, Spike was breathing heavily, everybody looked confused, except Angel who was surprised.

"The prophecy… he's human now…" was all he could say.

---------------

Tbc


	5. Chapter 5

Everybody was watching Spike in awe; the Halliwells were confused, not knowing what was happening. Angel was somewhat bitter, he knows he resigned the prophecy but he kept thinking that could be him instead of Spike.

Buffy, unsure, helped Spike up.

"Spike… is… is that true?" muttered the Slayer; Spike looked at her eyes, then his glance fell on a small cross hanging from Buffy's neck, slowly, he reached for it and closed his eyes before touching it, expecting to feel the burning pain, but instead his fingers felt the coldness of the silver. He traced the cross with his fingers as if trying to convince himself that it wasn't burning him.

"Guess it's true luv…"

With all of the things that have happened through the night, no one seemed to notice that they were fighting during all night and it was almost sunrise, Angel sensed the approaching sunlight and that made him react.

"It's almost dawn, and since not all of us are human I'll leave," ithout waiting for any comment or answer Angel turned around and started to walk away, he knows that Buffy and Spike have some history together, and he felt that he had no reason to interrupt them or stand in their way.

"Angel, wait," called a female voice, Angel stopped but didn't turn around, he waited until Buffy reached him and stood in front of him.

"Angel, don't leave, I still wanna talk to you… about… well mostly clear the Anne-being-our-daughter issue."

"There's nothing to clear, vampires can't have kids, I'm a vampire."

"That didn't stop Darla …"

Angel stared at Buffy not sure what to say.

"What," continued her "Do you think that because I'm not around I don't know what happened? I have my contacts you know, I know what happens in the supernatural world, I'm a world-ly known leader, u know?"

Angel kept staring at her, now with amusement, causing Buffy to roll her eyes, "Ok, Willow and Faith filled me in, but the point here is…" before she could finish, Angel put a finger over her mouth, "I get your point… you're right, we need to clear things up, but…" he looked up and pointed to the few first sun rays of the day.

"Oh, right, how could we talk if you're a pile of dust."

Soon, everybody but Ilyria, who stayed in LA looking for more fighting, and calm the feeling of revenge she had for Wesley's and Gunn's deaths; orbed to Italy, to the hall outside the Summers' apartment, in case that Angel couldn't be orbed inside due to not being invited in yet.

Hearing voices outside, Dawn, with Nikky in her arms opened the door, letting escape a sigh of relief of seeing everybody safe.

Everybody came in, Faith took her baby in her arms, she barely has been away from her since she was born, and she missed her daughter after a whole night battle.

Anne, who awoke not long before everybody orbed back, rushed to hug her boyfriend and then the younger versions of her parents.

Having made all the proper introductions between everybody, they all gathered in the small living room to share some of their backgrounds to get to know each other better and, after that, to hear the time travelers' story.

"Well then," began Anne "long story short, in our present, The First and The Source joined forces to rule the world and underworld and get rid of all good, as all baddies want, that's how we all met each other, the Watchers' Council researched about the Source and how It was defeated by the Charmed Ones, and on the other hand, the Elders gave Wyatt and Chris information about The First and how It got it's non-corporeal ass kicked by a Slayers army. So one thing lead to another, we met and joined forces as well. And everything was going well, but recently, somehow, they changed time, and they started with me, because was disappearing at moments, so with a spell we found out that those changes started in this time."

"Nice story mini-B" interrupted Faith, "but exactly how can we trust you, what if you're the bad guy trying to start those changes you talk about… am I making myself clear here? This whole time issue is giving me a headache,"

Anne was about to answer but Nikky cut her off so she could answer, "You don't feel your spidey-sense tingling, do you?" Faith shook her head, Nikky continued, "and don't you recognize your own daughter?"

Faith and Wood weren't at all surprised, they felt something about her when they first saw her, but still they couldn't quite believe it, but now their doubts have been somewhat cleared.

After a short period of silence, Faith smiled at the future version of her daughter, "Girl, you have kamikaze fighting style, it reminds me of me when I was called,"

"Hey! Don't criticize my style… you trained me…" whined Nikky acting like a kid, making her parents laugh.

"Other question," spoke Buffy "why did they start those changes with you, why are you the first one disappearing?" asked with some anger towards the bad guys for harming her daughter to be.

"We think that maybe because they know that if they changed things for the Halliwell family they would find out soon because they've done many time travels themselves.

"So they are messing up with my life"

"Yes… yours and dad's, and my first guess is that the vampire part is a start"

"Are you saying that he was the one supposed to become human after all?" asked Spike this time, still trying to get used to feel his body warm again after centuries of being cold.

"I didn't know my father was a vampire! They never mentioned it, ergo, I don't know how or when he stopped being a bloodsucker,"

"Hey, don't call me that," replied Angel wanting this girl's respect.

"Sorry dad," answered embarrassed Anne.

"Are you sure I'm your dad?"

"Well, duh, you always go around telling people how I have your eyes and hair, and your name."

"Err, his name? I'm the one who's name you have." interrupted Buffy.

"Yes and no, as I told you, people calls me Anne, but that's because of my resemblance with you, and because it's some sort of short for Angela, my name."

"So do you thing that maybe me being a human is what's messed up here?" Asked Spike, seeing how Buffy looked upset and confused, and who wouldn't, someone's playing with her life, and he felt some sort of guilt, he still cares for her and wants to see her happy.

"I don't think so, in the future you're human, and older."

"Is that because of a prophecy? Angel, you mentioned something earlier," this time Buffy wanted to get things straight; it was a shock for her seeing Spike again, she thought he was dead, then turns out he isn't, and then he becomes human in front of her eyes.

"Shanshu, it says that the vampire with a soul will become human, I always thought it was me, but then he got a soul too, and I signed to give up on that prophecy."

"Ah, yes, I remember reading something about it quite a while ago when I was researching about Angelus when you changed, but I found only a reference, I never read the actual prophecy itself," remembered Giles.

The more she heard, the more confused Buffy felt, she was happy for Spike, she even was considering to give it a shot with him, but she knew that wasn't a chance, or else she would change things in the future, and Anne wouldn't be born, it was a reminder that her life has always being written in some way and kept her apart from free will.

Even with those thoughts, she was happy knowing that she and Angel were going to have a child, she dreamed about that all the time when Angel was still in Sunnydale, and he's the love of her life, he loves him more than anything, but also she loves Spike.

A hand over her shoulder took Buffy out of her thoughts; she looked up and saw her sister's concerned look.

"Sorry, what were you saying?"

"I asked you if you're ok, you look pale," said Dawn.

"It's nothing, I just need some air, there are lots of things in my head, I need to clear my mind before it explodes or something because of the amount of thoughts," reassured her sister before standing up excusing herself from her guests and heading for the door, she was about to leave when her future daughter called her.

"Mom, don't you think we should be figuring out how to solve this? Find out why isn't dad human?"

"I'll be out just for a while, besides, I'm not good for research, I'll just get in the way" with that she walked out closing the door behind her.

"That explains my lack of researching skills…" mumbled Anne staring at the closed door.

After a while, Leo decided to go with the Elders, to see if they know anything about their current situation; Gilles called the England base, and asked them to contact the other centrals and research about the Source, and for the Shanshu, maybe find a loophole.

Nikky was carrying her baby self and bonding with her parents, Anne was talking about random stuff with Xander, Willow and Dawn and also exchanging stories with the Halliwells, about how each group started, and some of the demons they've faced, as Xander refered to "Everyday's routine".

With all the talking nobody noticed when Angel and Spike left, Angel was glad that they were on this side of the globe where it's night time, or else he would be on flames.

They wanted to talk with their favorite Slayer, they didn't want to admit it, but the two of them were jealous of each other, but they left that aside due to the fact that after a year of working together again on the same side, they respect each other, and all they want for now is to support Buffy.

They found her soon, by the edge of a fountain, she was staring the water flowing, she didn't even notice when the two approached.

"Buffy…" called Spike, making her jump a little, "didn't mean to scare you."

"Spike, Angel, what are you doing here? did you find anything?"

"Eh.. no, we thought maybe you'd like some company" responded Angel.

Buffy looked at them, then turned back to the water, Angel and Spike stood next to her, at each side.

The three of them stood there in silence staring into space until Buffy started to laugh.

"What's so amusing luv," asked the newly human.

"If somebody would have told me a couple of years ago that I was going to be standing in Rome with you two with me and none of us wanting any other dead… I would have called that person insane," answered thinking of the irony.

Angel and Spike thought about it for a second and nod in agreement smiling at the comment.

-------------------

tbc

Sorry, this was short, but there's a big chance that I finish this story soon. In a couple of weeks maybe.

So what do you think so far?


	6. Chapter 6

Buffy, Angel and Spike stood in silence for another moment, each one lost in their own thoughts when somebody called from behind.

"There you are," the trio turned around, "I've been looking for you, and it was as if you faded away." Doubtfully, Buffy walked towards the man, it was the Immortal; he gently grabbed her by the shoulders and leaned to kiss her, she turned her face slightly and received the kiss on the cheek instead of the mouth, he noticed this and his features hardened, he looked to see the other men, recognizing them both, "What brings you here again gentleman, more business?",

"You know them?" asked Buffy taking a step away from him, she had enough to care about with Angel and Spike there that she simply didn't know how to handle having her actual boyfriend added to the mix.

"For a while now, seems like a lifetime."

"Yeah, well, it's been two lives but, who's counting," replied Spike approaching the couple followed closely by Angel. Both were staring at the man like predators before attacking their victim, and the Immortal's glance wasn't as different as theirs. Buffy saw this and stood in the middle of the three, in an attempt to avoid any possible aggression.

The immortal glanced back at Buffy's eyes, her glance softening, then whispered gently to her, "I was worried about you, that's all, come with me, let's have a walk."

She wanted to stay where she was, but also she couldn't resist his charm, the sound of his calming voice has always made her feel that everything was alright, all her worries seemed to fade away, she liked that feeling, and it was what she needed more at the moment.

"Right, uhm, I'll see you guys later," she told to Angel and Spike not facing them, her eyes stayed focused on his boyfriend's.

Spike and Angel stood there watching how the Immortal and Buffy walked away, losing themselves into the shadows of the night.

After some minutes Angel and Spike returned to the Summers' apartment, where the others were still talking and laughing and sharing yet more stories.

Giles was near the phone, in case somebody from any of the bases called with some information.

Spike walked to where Dawn was sitting, "Little bit," he called, "I don't want to be rude but, can I loot your kitchen?" Dawn giggled by the comment, and so did Paige who was next to her and heard what Spike said.

"How does it feel? Being human," asked the youngest Haliwell.

"When I got my soul back and actually felt it, it stung, now with my humanity back… stings harder, plus the grumbling guts aren't helping."

"Get ready for more itching sensations, because you need a visit to sunlight-villa, you're so pale… and it's not unappealing but… I mean… you could use some color… " trailed Paige feeling embarrassed when Spike simply watched, amusement visible in his eyes.

"Well pet, you're on the same boat, you're not exactly tanned queen, looks like we're both pale but gorgeous," said with a grin.

"Gorgeous?... you think I'm gorgeous," this time Paige was the amused one when she saw Spike lightly blushing.

"Spike!, you blush! I've never seen you blush," squealed Dawn who was still close to the pair. Spike quickly looked away from the witch as if nothing happened and headed to the kitchen.

"Right then, kitchen, food, I need… hey do you have wings? Or onion rings?"

Paige looked at him all the way, a smile of amusement still on her lips.

When Spike got to the kitchen Dawn came from behind and hugged him tightly, Spike turned around and hugged her back, "what is this for pet?", "I just missed you, and I'm happy that you're alive, and well, and human," replied smiling before letting go and check on what food was eatable, their meals are always take outs since none of the Summers had the habit of cooking, they weren't bad at all with it, but Dawn always makes a mess, and Buffy rarely has time to cook.

Angel stood by the window, looking outside, he's been there since he and Spike came back, Anne approached him and gently put her hand on his forearm.

"U ok?"

Angel turned to her, "Yes, just thinking… this future of yours… how far ahead is it?"

"Around twenty years,"

"And you… when … how old are you?"

"Nineteen"

Angel stared blankly at her, she's supposed to be born sooner than he expected, he was thinking that maybe he wasn't the father, maybe he just takes care of her and Buffy in the future. But looking at her deeply, he could see that indeed, her eyes were very similar to his, as well as some other features, slight similarities not as obvious as the resemblance with Buffy, but visible, she was a part of him too, he tried to deny it due to the impossibilities, but he felt a connection, like with Connor.

"Dad, breathe… or… do whatever vamps do when they seem to choke, do vampires choke?" Angel smiled a little loop-sided, "you'll figure out what's the problem, you always do, you, mom, and the others always find solutions to problems, as well as Wyatt's family, all together we'll save the day as always," she looked back to see the persons gathered in the place, the persons she's learned from, and who she admired, the persons that meant a lot to her; the persons who were goofing around at the moment, "yup… this is the mighty team…" added with a frown.

Outside, somewhere else, Buffy and the Immortal were still walking, they were heading, to his place, a fancy, wide mansion, with security personal, both human and demon kind; Buffy walked up the few steps at the entrance, but the Immortal stopped her, "We're taking a ride," he said with his smooth accent, pointing to a stylish limo that had just stopped in front of the mansion. The driver got out and opened the door for them; then closed it after they got in and took his place behind the wheel, driving away.

"Where are we going?" asked Buffy cuddling close to him.

"It's a surprise."

Back at the apartment, the phone rang, Giles answered it, it was a call from the England base, they found references to the Shanshu prophecy, but not the actual script to it, and so far what they had found out was that it talks about the vampire with a soul, but never mentioning which one in case of having more than one. Giles thanked their efforts and hung up.

"The prophecy is a dead end, it talks about only one, which I'm guessing is Spike obviously," he informed the others.

"Well, we were talking about the possibility of a spell, but it would work temporally, so far we don't know how to make it permanent," said Phoebe downhearted,

"We could take a look at the Book of Shadows, maybe we find something useful, Paige could you orb back to the Manor and bring it please?" suggested Piper, Paige nodded and orbed away, returning in a matter of seconds with the book in her hands.

Willow stood up from her seat next to Kennedy, impressed by the thick book; she looked at it in awe, she wanted to hold it but didn't dare, in respect to the owners. Paige chucked when she saw the wicca wanting to reach the book but retreating her hand before touching the cover, "you can take a look at it," Paige handed her the book, who had the look of a small kid receiving a present; she took it as if holding a delicate piece of glass that could break at any moment.

She went back to her seat and placed the book on her lap, immediately flipping through the pages, soon Giles was standing close to her, to have a better look, Kennedy saw him almost drooling and moved away, offering her seat to the British since she wasn't such a bookworm herself.

"Why couldn't we have a book like this back in Sunnydale, research nights would had been research evenings, even with time for cookies!"

"Well, yes, definitely a resource such as this would had been incredibly helpful," replied Giles sounding not as cheerful as Willow but enthusiasm was evident in his voice.

After looking through the book, they found a lot of interesting things, but nothing mentioning how to humanize a vampire.

In the middle of the room, a swirl of light was visible, Leo came back from his visit to the elders, who where more concerned about the alliance between the Source and the First than in finding ways of how a vampire can turn human.

It was getting late, and although it was around noon where they came from before arriving to Rome, they were tired from the battle, and in the scoobies' case, they were also tired for the flights they took to get there before being orbed to L.A.

Dawn offered them all a place to crash, but there wasn't room enough so the Halliwell family decided to return to the Manor but said they were going to be back after some rest; Wyatt and Chris orbed with them, Anne and Nikky decided to stay, and told them that if something happened they would call them.

"I'm starting to worry about Buffy, she said she just needed some air, but I didn't think she meant air to fill an entire hot-air balloon."

"Yeah, I'm with you in the worryness auntie, mom told me it was going to be for a while."

"No need to worries," Spike tried to calm Dawn and Anne, "peaches and I saw her, she's fine, she's with her boyfriend," the last word sounding as a mockery.

"Ah… well, it's nice to know that she finds time to date when her daughter is on the verge of disappearing," snapped with sarcasm Anne who was a little less worried but hurt at her mother's priorities.

"She's with him again? Seriously, I'm going to ask for a restraint order," complained Dawn.

"Why is that, does he bother you Dawnster?" asked Xander with concern.

"A little… too much, since they started dating Buffy has changed, when he's not around she is normal, but as soon as she sees him she doesn't care about anything else… she didn't even make a big fuzz when accidentally I burned something at the kitchen, and left this huge black burnt on the wall, she was with him here in the living room, but other day when he wasn't here I dropped a cup of red wine over the carpet and she got pissed because of a few drops."

"Maybe she just wants to give him a good impression" supposed Xander.

"Yeah you're probably right."

"That's not right," deduced Angel, "she's not the kind of person who would pretend with someone in a relationship.

"Captain forehead has a point, she likes to be herself in a relationship, that's what got Initiative boy scared, he couldn't handle it."

"Willow, is there a way to see if Buffy is under some kind of spell? See if the Immortal is doing her something somehow? We could be overreacting, I mean, people change… but, I think it's worth checking,"

"Sure," answered Willow to the broody vampire.

Meanwhile, outskirts of town, the driver stopped the limo, "We're here Sir," he announced to the Immortal.

Buffy looked at the surroundings, she could see that they were far from anything; the Immortal got out of the limo, Buffy did the same, two robed figures were in front of the limo, they bowed at the Immortal.

"What's going on? Who are they?" asked the Slayer feeling that she wasn't safe at all.

The Immortal looked down, "I'm sorry, I really care about you but I have to do what I've been commanded."

"What are you talking about… let go of me!" she struggled against the hold of one of the robed men, who judging by his strength, wasn't human.

The other robed being started chanting, he was holding a dagger, and used it to bleed his hand, blood drops fell to the floor, the robed one took a step back, he was done with the chanting, on the floor a hole was created where the drops fell, the hole started growing until it was big enough for someone to fit easily.

The robed holding Buffy pushed her close to the hole, she tried to break free but her efforts were useless; she looked down at the hole expecting to see darkness, but she saw something assembling a whirlpool, it was bright and orange; helplessly she turned to see the Immortal, but he kept looking down, "I'm sorry," repeated himself painfully.

Buffy was pushed abruptly to the hole, falling in the whirlpool, and automatically it closed itself after Buffy passed through.

The Immortal stared at the spot where the hole was, "I had no choice," whispered softly, "farewell Buffy Summers…"


	7. Chapter 7

Somewhere else, far from Rome, an orange light appeared in the middle of the air, from it, Buffy fell, falling hard on the floor.

Slowly she stood up, looking around; the first thing she noted was that it was dark, the only light sources were a few torches on the walls. Limping, she walked a little and grabbed one torch to have a better look at her surroundings; that place remind her a lot of the Hellmouth when they went down to close it, she was sure she was underground, but had no idea of where.

She looked up to find a possible way to get to the surface but all she could see was blackness, she couldn't even see where this 'hole' ended.

"Are you lost?" came a voice from behind, Buffy recognized that voice as her own, she turned around to find her double standing there.

"The First…"

"Aw, you still remember me," the First looking as Buffy teased with a fake melancholic tone, "what, no hug?"

"What do you want," asked Buffy through gritted teeth.

"I was hoping we could talk, catch up, probably with a cup of coffee," the First circled her, arms crossed, Buffy followed with her gaze, "but as usual, all you think about is fight," for an instant the First disappeared only to suddenly reappear right in front of the Slayer's face, only inches apart, "what I want, is for your little annoying kid and her wanna-do-good pals to stay out of the way," continued with threatening voice before casually stepping back and wander around. "she's got your determination you know? It's hard to get rid of her, as well as that Lehane girl, they were dumb enough to stand in my way when I tried to open Cleveland's Hellmouth, I hate when people doesn't collaborate, that's why I'm gonna take her out of the picture, and to do so, I'm afraid you'll die. Nothing personal… no wait… it is personal."

Buffy simply passed through the First and walked away not looking back at it, "you can't kill what you can't touch," confirmed walking away from the First's sight.

"I never said I was going to kill you myself… not before you help us," mumbled Buffy/First with an evil grin.

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Rome

The scoobies were asleep, even Spike who was planning on wait for the Slayer to arrive, couldn't resist the tiredness of his human body and without him noticing, fell asleep soon; earlier Willow made a spell to know if Buffy had been under any kind of manipulation, she only found that the Immortal is capable of convince anyone to do what he wants; according to Angel and Spike, he may or may not be evil but they've consider him as their enemy for decades.

Angel left after the others went to sleep, he had been having a bad feeling since Buffy left with the Immortal, that feeling was growing until he couldn't control it, he needed to make sure she was alright.

He went to the spot where he last saw her, catching a weak trail of her scent that led him easily to the Immortal's mansion, he saw the security staff guarding the door, so he knew he wasn't going to be able to get in easily.

He was planning how to break in when a black limo arrived, Angel remained hidden, watching; the Immortal got out of the limo, a sadden expression on his face, without saying a word to any of his guards who greeted him, he got into his mansion.

Angel returned to the apartment, thinking that maybe Buffy was already there.

When he opened the door he heard Dawn, "Buffy? Is that you?" asked while turning on a lamp.

"No, it's just me… hasn't she come yet?" Angel whispered trying not to wake the others, who were sleeping in the living room.

"No, she hasn't even call, whenever she stays out all night for whatever reason she calls me… Angel, what if something happened?"

Angel was about to answer but the hushed small conversation was enough to wake Anne, Nikky, Faith and Kennedy due to their slayer hearing.

"Is it day yet?" asked Kennedy yawning.

"Not for at least an hour," answered Angel.

"Is everything ok?... dad, you have that look,"

"What look?"

"The one you have when you know something and don't know how to tell."

By this time the rest of the scoobies started to wake up.

"I went out to look for Buffy, followed her scent to the Immortal's place, then I saw him arriving alone, I thought that maybe he brought Buffy here…" Angel informed them.

Anne saw his concern and tried to calm him, she walked to him and put a hand over his shoulder but surprisingly, it went through him, Angel tried to hold her hand but he couldn't touch her; alarmed, Anne stared at her hands, they seemed normal, she wasn't fading away, she tried to hold a photo frame that was on a shelf, but she couldn't touch it either. This drowned everyone's attention.

"The First?" was Dawn's first thought.

"I'm not it, I'm still me!" snapped starting to freak.

"Chris, Wyatt!" called Nikky, "something tells me things just changed against us, if we can't turn things back to normal she'll die," she told the others.

Wyatt and Chris orbed in.

"What is it?" asked Wyatt alarmed.

"Wyatt," called Anne, her boyfriend ran to her side looking at her shocked face.

"What happened, are you ok?" he tried to hold her, but he went through.

"I believe that qualifies as not being ok," pointed Xander.

"Something must have happened to Buffy, otherwise Anne wouldn't be directly affected," thought Angel out loud.

"I'll do a locator spell to find her, Dawn, do you have a map of the city?" Asked Willow, receiving a nod in response, "bring it." Dawn obeyed, walked to a small bookshelf and searched, she took the folded map and handed it to Willow, she extended the map on the floor, sat cross-legged and began to meditate.

After a few minutes Willow looked up at the others who were waiting, "I can't find her… I can't even sense her."

"We could scry for her," suggested Chris.

Using a crystal borrowed from Willow and one of Buffy's small crosses, Wyatt scryed for the Slayer, with the same result, he couldn't find her. He tried with a world map too, but got nothing.

"What does this mean, is she…" Dawn couldn't finish what she was fearing.

"No, she's not dead," said Angel confidently.

"He's right, otherwise I would be dead too, but me being a ghost could mean that there's not much time before things change."

"Well, if we want answers we'll have to start going with the Immortal," suggested Giles.

"I'll go, he's kinda paranoid with visitors, nobody gets into his turf easily, so if any of you go, you won't be able to see more than the closed door."

"You shouldn't go by yourself Dawn, it may be dangerous if he is indeed behind this, and if things get ugly I could orb us out of there," offered Wyatt, Dawn agreed to that.

Dawn went to her room to get dressed, meanwhile the others where thinking of Buffy's possible whereabouts.

"She could be in the underworld, is nearly impossible to sense somebody who's down there," was Chris' input.

"Is there a way to go there and look for her?" asked Angel.

"I could orb there but…"

"Fine, take me there," interrupted Angel before Chris could finish.

"We can't simply go there and walk around easily," Chris tried to reason with Angel, but he vamped out.

"Yes we can, now take me," growled the vampire.

"When you put it like that," trailed Chris taking Angel's arm, both orbing away.

After some minutes Dawn and Wyatt left too, the others had no option but wait.

-------

Underground

Buffy was walking through a huge tunnel, after she left the First she saw only one way to follow, she was unsure of where would it lead.

She had been walking for a long time, the tunnel was going upwards, she was hoping to find a way out soon.

She heard a noise, not sure from where it came, Buffy continued walking, senses alert; suddenly bringers jumped at her, unluckily for them, they were easily defeated, the Slayer took a couple of their knives.

She walked a few more steps ahead but was attacked again by three more bringers, while she was fighting them, she could see more shadows coming from behind, when she finished with the bringers she stood there in fighting stance, waiting for more bringers to come, but to her surprise, this time it wasn't only bringers, there were also ubervamps, and men, well they looked human but started throwing energy balls at her, she dodged them as best as she could.

Seeing her chances against such mass were minimal, she ran from them, but she was sure that they would reach her anytime.

---------------

Rome

Time passed, and neither Wyatt and Dawn or Chris and Angel came back. Finally after little more than an hour, Dawn and Wyatt orbed in, the others looked at them expecting to hear what they had to say.

"Well, turns out, the Immortal is nothing but a pawn, he's addicted to power so the First and the Source took that for their purpose," explained Dawn.

"In what way?" inquired Giles.

"They threatened him by taking away all of his influence and social power, as well as his immortality if he didn't do what they say; they asked him to take Buffy to them, the Immortal has no idea of where she was sent to, one of his minions opened a portal with a spell the Source gave him, and the last time he saw Buffy, she was pushed trough that portal," finished Dawn worried for what may have happened to her sister after that.

They were, at some point, hoping that she was sent to the underworld, that way Angel and Chris may probably had found her already.

Soon their questions would be answered, Chris and Angel just came back after Dawn's explanation.

Angel was angry and worried, Spike asked them if they found out anything.

"We questioned a few lower demons, apparently no one down there has heard anything about the Slayer being there, and I wasn't able to catch her scent anywhere," explained Angel obviously frustrated.

"What we could find out," continued Chris, "is that there's a big chance that the Hellmouth gets reactivated, the Source and the First are on the verge of make it happen, and if no one stops them, they won't only be able to reactivate it, they would open it as well."

"Well then, let's get moving," suggested Spike, "looks like we're going back to that bloody crater."

"Yes, they could be already there, possibly Buffy too, if she was indeed sent to the Source and the First," Giles assumed.

In no time, everybody was getting ready for any possible confrontation with the bad guys, Wyatt and Chris called their family, Coop stayed behind with the boys, just like he did when the sisters went to L.A.

Faith took the Scythe, and the others took swords, axes and crossbows; even Dawn was going, she was not going to sit and do nothing while her sister was possible in danger.

She called Andrew, so he could stay and take care of baby Nikky.

Andrew arrived fast; after all, he lives in the same building as the Summers sisters, just a couple of floors below.

All armed and ready orbed to the Hellmouth. Anne put her hand through Wyatt's arm to be orbed with them.

-------------

California

Next to the crater that was once Sunnydale, the big group appeared.

They spread, searching for any movement down the crater; Angel saw a hole near the bottom, he slid down the wall of the crater, the slayers of the group did the same after they saw the same hole Angel did.

Before reaching the bottom, an invisible force stopped them; Faith swung the Scythe hoping to do something against whatever was in her way, to no avail. The only one who got able to go through, was Anne.

The rest of the group orbed down, the Halliwells and Willow knew it was a force field, a powerful one.

They tried to take it down with magic, or at least make a crack, Leo even tried to orb through it but nothing was working, they were going to need more time to gather enough power to do so.

The others were on alert, looking for signs of their enemies or Buffy.

The hole they saw from above was the entrance of a tunnel; they could see that someone dug to make it.

From it, Buffy got out, the others saw her and for a moment felt relief, but that relief changed when they noticed her state.

She was wounded, obviously she had been fighting, she couldn't move freely due to her injuries, she had gashes in both of her arms and upper body, rounded marks in her back that looked like burnts, and a bite mark in the neck.

She spotted her friends and smiled exhausted, knowing that they were there to help. She walked towards them, aware that she was still being chased, she got as close to them as the force field let her.

Anne ran next to her mother but unable to do anything. The others looked helplessly how bringers, ubervamps and demons with their energy balls came out of the cave; they were less than twenty, Buffy defeated many in the tunnel, but now she was too weak to take them all, she was trapped with them and the others could do nothing but stare.

The witches were still working on the force field, Buffy got ready to fight again, enemies were getting closer and closer, and then they simply stood still when with a flash of light, the First looking like Buffy appeared close to them and in flames the Source came too.

"Bring her!" commanded the Source with deep husky voice. His face was covered with his rob's hood.

Two ubervamps grabbed Buffy, each holding her arms pulled her to take her near the Source, Anne uselessly tried to stop them.

The First turned to the others, "we wanted to do this down there," said pointing at the cave, "where it's hidden and protected from being sensed, but now we can make it with spectators… sit comfortable and watch the show," offered cheerily.

The First walked to the Source, they stood facing each other, arms spread, the First took its original form and got into the Source's body,

Once they became one, it removed the hood from its head; it looked as a dark shadow, a silhouette with intimidating red glowing eyes.

He lifted his arm, a blue light came from his hand, the light expanded forming a big rectangle that became solid and looked like a big lighten tray.

The ubervamps pushed Buffy with her back to the tray, her hands, legs and waist were held with shackles that came out of it.

The Source/First lifted his arm again, turning his hand, at the same time the tray turned horizontal with Buffy facing down at the ground.

The Evil entity approached her, put his hands together and summoned another blue light, this time creating a dagger; the tray was floating above his head, with Buffy watching unable to move.

In one quick abrupt movement, he stabbed Buffy in the abdomen, she let out a cry of pain, and she could hear her friends screaming "NO!"

The Entity stepped back, leaving the dagger incrusted in Buffy's stomach, blood flowing freely down to the ground.

--------------

To be continued...

Suggestions? Comments? anyway, probably this'll end in a couple of chapters, but I'm not so sure, there are some other things I have in mind.


	8. Chapter 8

Helplessly, Anne tried to remove the knife from Buffy, free her, do something to help her mother, but everything was useless, she glanced at the others; Angel, Spike Faith and Dawn were punching, kicking or slashing against the force field, Piper, Phoebe and Paige were using the Power of Three to open a door through it helped by Wyatt, Chris and Willow; Robin, Nikky, Xander, Giles and Leo split trying to find out if the force field had an end, maybe it was some sort of wall but they came to the conclusion that it was like a huge capsule around the place.

Buffy was getting weaker every second, her blood made a puddle on the ground; she saw the sad, hopeless glance in her daughter's eyes who was sobbing kneeled close to the puddle.

"I'm sorry…" Anne whispered looking down at the ground, and then lifted her face to face Buffy, her face wet with tears, "it's all my fault," continued louder, "if I hadn't come here in the first place…" "I'd had ended here anyway," Buffy cut her off speaking weakly and panting, "if you hadn't come… I would be here alone… without hope… but you're here… you all are…"

"But I can't do anything! And the others can't either!" Anne cried harder.

"They'll find a way… I trust them…" Buffy glanced at her family and friends then back to Anne "and I'm not easy to kill," joked in spite of the pain.

"That's touching," interrupted the evil Entity, "and sorry to interrupt but I want results and I want them quick," he moved close to Buffy and pushed the knife deeper, she closed her eyes, trying not to scream; the entity was smiling wickedly, however the smile faded when he heard the noise of fighting, he turned to see what was causing that.

The force field had been breached, Spike, Giles, Robin, Nikky, Chris, Wyatt and Leo were fighting against the bringers, uverbamps and demons.

The entity let go of the knife's handle and turned his attention to Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Willow and Faith who started to surround him; Piper tried to blow him up but only managed to make him move back, she repeated this until he was away from Buffy.

Angel and Dawn took the opportunity to help her, Angel working on the shackles, and Dawn gently pulling out the knife, when she got it out she used her jacket to cover her sister's wound, slowing the bleeding.

Angel grew frustrated when he couldn't do anything to the shackles, "these are too strong, I can't break them," said pulling one to no avail.

"Maybe you can use the knife, he made both the same way…" suggested Anne.

Angel took the knife that Dawn dropped to the ground and with it tried to break the shackle making sure not to hurt Buffy, and it was working, he managed to free her left wrist and started with her right.

The entity noted this and wanted to stop him but the witches and rogue Slayer were giving him a hard time.

After a couple of minutes Angel broke all of the shackles and was carrying Buffy, they shared small smiles to each other, then Angel broke eye contact lying her on the ground and focused on her wounds, her stab was still bleeding under Dawn's jacket; "Leo!" Angel called the whitelighter who hurried to their side, immediately working on the Slayer's wounds, he started with the stab knowing it was the more serious. The now familiar gold light appeared from his hands, Angel, Anne and Dawn were expecting to watch it magically heal in seconds, but nothing was happening.

"I can feel a dark force retaining my powers…" Leo told the others, he moved his hands to the bite mark on Buffy's neck, he had no problems healing that one, he then healed all of her wounds, finally returning to the one in her abdomen, but that one kept bleeding.

"That knife was created with demonic energy, and that's preventing me from healing it…"

"Don't worry about me, the others may need some healing…" Buffy said feeling less weak than before, but still not at her best.

Leo nodded and went to help the others who fought against the demons, they defeated all and were wounded, nothing serious, in no time they were all healed and joined the Sisters and Faith against the entity.

They weren't doing very well, they were getting exhausted; and on the other hand the entity looked as if nothing had happened, the only difference was that now he was angry.

He lifted his arms and threw everyone away as if they were nothing but dolls, calmly he walked to the puddle of blood, retrieved his knife and bled his palm; when a single drop touched the blood on the floor, it enlightened; it was a bright white light that turned into small flames.

The flames moved forming a circle, and inside of it, a pentagram.

The others charged forward to attack, but the entity lifted one of his hands and threw them back again, not taking the eyes off the symbol.

The flames turned black, the ground was being engraved by the flames, when those faded, a seal was revealed.

The Entity turned to the others with a wicked smile, "Welcome back to the Hellmouth."

----------

tbc

-----------------------------------------

_Sorry this was short, but soon more to come._


	9. Chapter 9

The Entity was standing next to the Seal, he was about to let more of his blood drop on it, but without even expecting it someone tackled him making both, the Entity and his aggressor fall to the ground.

"You won't be activating this, mate," declared Spike getting to his feet.

"You insolent! How dare you!" the Entity lifted his arm and threw Spike up high. If he were still a vampire the fall wouldn't do much harm, he would heal fast, but as a human all he could think about while falling was 'bloody hell'; then his sight got blurred with blue and white lights, after that he saw himself in the floor being held by the youngest Halliwell.

Right after the Entity threw Spike, Paige knew he was going to get hurt, and without even think of it she orbed herself up in the air, grabbed Spike and orbed both safely to the ground. After a moment, Paige released her hold on the ex-vampire, he stared at her with gratitude, "thanks luv, that would had been a nasty fall… if it weren't for you, you would be pickin' your fellow with a bloody spatula." Paige blushed for some reason, "ah… no problem… is just that… who would like to be smashed against the floor… I mean…" Spike simply smiled and stood up, helping Paige to her feet.

The Entity however, was all but glad of what just happened, he stood up and headed towards the Seal, this time Piper managed to freeze him, the effect lasted only a couple of seconds but that was enough for Faith to ran to him, Scythe in hand ready to attack; by the time the Entity unfroze, Faith swung the Slayer's Weapon aiming for his neck.

For the others who watched the attack and even for Faith, it seemed like a perfect swing, fast, lethal and precise. But to everyone's surprise it didn't do any harm, not even a scratch; Faith attacked again, this time with the pointy wooden end, she incrusted it on the Entity's chest, he simply looked down at the weapon in the middle of his chest, with his right hand punched Faith sending her to the floor and with his left hand pulled out the Scythe, the wound it caused was immediately healed when the weapon was removed.

"Non of your weapons can hurt me," the Entity said with a grin waving the Scythe close to Faiths face, "neither any of your tricks," trailed turning to the witches.

The Entity threw the Scythe away, and went to retrieve his knife from the ground where he dropped it when Spike tackled him. He reopened the cut he did on his hand and held it above the Seal, this time ready for any other approach for any of his enemies who were ready to take him away from the Seal; but from the Entity's body a massive wave of energy was expelled, hurting everyone, the only ones who were unaffected by this attack were Faith, Buffy and Anne, the first two because they were on the ground, and the wave passed above their heads, and the third was still a ghostly shadow.

Buffy dragged herself close to where Angel was lying, when she reached she glanced at the others, none of them were unconscious but they were badly hurt, she knew Leo could heal them but she was sure the Entity wasn't going to allow that, he would attack Leo at the first chance. Buffy also noticed that Faith wasn't as bad as the others, at least she could attack but that seemed useless knowing that not even the Scythe hurt him.

Buffy was about to lose hope, thinking that this thing couldn't be defeated, after all two big evils became one, odds were against the Slayerettes and Charmed ones.

But something caught her attention, the knife in the First/Source's hand; the Scythe didn't scratch him but that dagger did, or else why would he throw away the Slayer's weapon to get his knife in order to bleed his hand again.

"Non of your weapons can hurt me," Buffy repeated softly the Entity's words.

"What are you doing?" asked her future daughter when she saw Buffy slowly standing up removing Dawn's jacket from her stab.

Buffy didn't reply, not to her, neither to Angel who called her weakly. Slowly but with determination she began to walk to the Entity who was busy opening the Seal with his blood to notice the approaching Slayer.

Faith stood up when she saw Buffy coming, "Got a plan B?" asked when she recognized the look on the blonde's face.

"The knife…" Faith frowned at Buffy's words, then realization hit her, she nodded to her sister Slayer and then went to pick the Scythe.

Faith and Buffy both came near the Entity, the blonde putting away the pain from her wound; when both were close to him, Faith swung again the Scythe, knowing she wouldn't harm him but she wanted to distract him; the Entity, after the Scythe harmlessly crossed against his mid section, lifted his left hand; which was the one he was holding the knife with; and sent Faith flying backwards. Buffy took this opportunity to grab his left arm; annoyed, the Entity turned around to attack the Slayer but she was faster just this once, thanks to Faith's distraction she was able to take the knife off his hand and as soon as he turned to face her, she stabbed him with his own dagger right on his heart.

Buffy stepped back, watching how the Entity was being affected by the knife, he was screaming in pain.

Leo watched how both Slayers worked together to achieve this, and he took advantage of the distraction as well, starting to heal everyone again, one by one. When everyone got to their feet, they watched in awe how the Entity that was all untouchable not long ago was now screaming. They all let out a sigh of relief thinking that everything was going to be over soon.

The Entity violently pulled the knife out of his chest, black blood pouring from the wound. He fell to his knees, closed his eyes and a light covered him, when the light faded, his red eyes glowed yellow for a moment, after that, the Source's original face was visible, just as is was clearly visible how the First left his body.

The First stayed in its original form, right behind the Source who put a hand over the mark left by the knife, in a matter of seconds the wound was gone.

"Looks like we did our victory dance a little too soon," said Xander, fear in his voice.

"Indeed you have," replied the First with his deep echoing voice.

"That's bad…" said Buffy walking backwards, staring at the First and the Source, then noticing how the Seal started to open, growls could be heard at the other side, "That's worse…" she trailed off.

Both the First and the Source's evil laughs echoed through the crater once known as Sunnydale.

------------------

Tbc

-------------

A/N: Up next… a spell which was cast in one of the BtVS videogames :P it seems handy in this case.

And also the Charmed ones will have work to do.

And then what about Angel and his Vampire-ness? Still some way ahead. I was planning on making 10 chapters but that's not gonna happen now… maybe 12, or 13…anyway let's see how this goes.


	10. Chapter 10

**It's been a while since i updated this, but i haven't forgotten it xD. This chapter is split in 2 parts, it turned out longer than i planned. Soon i'll post the rest.**

* * *

"This was not supposed to happen!" said Chris worried, looking straight to the Hellmouth; the same Hellmouth he has heard many stories since his family crossed paths with the Slayers, but those stories never mentioned how hard the evil vibe could be felt.

The Halliwell sisters had never seen anything like this before; they've been in different dimensions, and the underworld, so this isn't totally new for them, but unlike those times, this Hellmouth was a bigger treat due to the fact that it's a free unprotected gate that could allow any demon in hell and underground to cross freely to this world, this could easily unleash hell on earth in no time.

"Looks like all hope is about to get lost," the sisters heard a familiar voice. Piper and Phoebe immediately turned around .

"Prue?!" both replied in a mix of surprise, joy, and doubt.

"Is that really Prue?" asked Paige in hopes to finally meet her oldest gone sister.

"It's good to see you all," said Prue with a smile, "I've miss you."

"What are you doing here? will you help us?"

"Sorry Phoebs, I'm here to tell you that there's nothing either of you could do to stop this; this time… this is the end," Prue said with pain in her eyes.

"No! there must be something…"

"Paige…" she smiled to the youngest sister, "I've been sent to get you all, to guide you to cross over.

The sisters were speechless, was this really the end? Had they failed?

"Just let it go, stop fighting" insisted Prue, "and come with me, we'll be together again, along with mom and grams," she finished with a sweet smile.

"Prue…" Piper began to speak but didn't know what to say.

Dawn; who wasn't far from the sisters; heard Piper calling Prue's name; and although she just met the sisters not long ago, the sisters when they were all in Rome at her apartment sharing stories told them about Prue and how they lost her.

"Don't listen to her," Dawn warned "this could be a trick from the First."

Prue's eyes showed a little anger, "and who are you to tell my sisters who can or cannot they listen to?"

Dawn ignored her, "the First plays with people's minds this way, showing itself as persons who passed away."

"Look at me, you know you can trust me," Prue told her sisters, looking at them straight to their eyes. Seeing the Halliwells' teary eyes she continued, "and look around, do you think you can beat this? Soon this will be happening all around the world."

The sisters took a look around; while they were facing their oldest sister, the others began fighting against the horde of demons and warlocks that came from the opened Hellmouth, they didn't even realize when the fight started.

The source was watching in delight the battle, more creatures were coming out from the seal, and as fast as they could they were trying to climb out of the crater, the others weren't able to hold them all, but still they kept fighting.

Buffy in spite of her still bleeding wound was standing her ground, with Angel and Anne close by, attacking as many enemies as they could handle. And the fact that Anne couldn't touch anything didn't mean she could not help, she was watching the fight and warning the others of any attacks coming at their backs.

Spike had a gash on his forehead, and the blood was blinding his sight at moments making it harder for him to fight back; and added to that was the lack of his lost vampire strength. But even that he wasn't going to give up.

Chris, Wyatt and Leo were doing their parts too, using their powers to attack or to orb back to the bottom of the crater the demons that were almost out of it.

Faith, Nikky and Wood were back to back protecting each other from the horde.

Xander was protecting Willow while she gathered her powers to attack with all of her strength.

"You're right…" Piper agreed with Prue, "this may spread world wide… we might die… all humanity might die…" Prue nodded at Piper's words "but I won't give up yet," Piper continued with determination, "our family and friends are fighting as if there were no tomorrow, and there's no chance in hell I'm gonna sit and do nothing," her sisters nodded in agreement.

"The real Prue would do the same," Phoebe challenged the figure pretending to be Prue.

"You fools, don't you see that there's no hope? We've won… the fight between good and evil has come to an end and evil prevails, we can't be defeated." The First turned to itself.

By instinct, Piper tried to blow the First up but the incorporeal evil was unaffected.

Recovering from a blow that almost knocked her out, Buffy regrouped with the other scoobies, "we need more back up," she said

"What if we ask Wyatt and the others to orb some Slayers to help us," suggested Anne. Buffy nodded to that. Anne ran to her boyfriend, soon Wyatt, along with Chris, Leo and Paige were close to Buffy to ask her where they could find the Slayers.

Wyatt and Chris orbed to England, taking Giles with them so that the slayers could trust them.

And Leo, Paige and Dawn orbed to the Italy base.

They could go to any point of the world and for sure find a group of Slayers, but the biggest armies were located in London, Rome and L.A, but they assumed the L.A crew were still dealing with the remaining demons, so deciding who to call wasn't hard.

After less than 5 minutes, blue and white lights covered big part of the crater revealing both Slayer squads, making an army of around sixty slayers.

Each squad leader approached Faith and Buffy.

"We can handle this for a while," said the leader of London Squad as each slayer went straight to fight the demons and pushing them back into the Hellmouth, they weren't going to let anything pass them.

"I could do some research on how to close the seal or weaken either the Source or the First," offered Giles.

"Buffy…" called Piper coming closer to her, "there's not much we can do here, I don't thing any of us came prepared for this."

"You're right… call your people, we're leaving," the blonde agreed.

"Leaving?... mom, we can't leave, what if the hellmouth starts to suck the world!" Anne opposed.

"If that happens we're screwed, we need a plan, this is to big for us to handle right now… I know this can't wait, but for now the girls can get us some time to come up with a plan and finish this."

Anne just nodded at Buffy; ever since she became slayer and asked her mom to train her instead of train with the other girls, she got used to her mother's manners and handle fights by herself before risking others. In the future every time there was an apocalyptic thing going on, usually she along with Nikky are the first ones to go into battle, only the two of them, along with the Halliwell young men.

And ever since Buffy became one of the two mayor Slayers of the whole bunch, she started to get used to trust the girls to handle things she would usually handle by herself. And she and Faith only intervened when things grew bigger. And in this moment, she trusts the other slayers to keep the situation under control until they can come up with a strategy.

They all decided to go to the manor, where the Halliwells could check on the book of Shadows and make potions.

Giles asked to be orbed to England to the Council's main office so he could do research. Leo went with the Elders in hopes to get some help.

**San Francisco**

* * *

Paige and Wyatt were healing the wounded. Wyatt tried again to heal Buffy's wound but the negative energy of the knife was still preventing his power to work.

"It's ok, the slayer healing will take care of this soon," Buffy said wincing when Angel pressed a towel against the wound.

"I think we got so used to being magically healed… this is all we have," said Phoebe entering to the living room carrying a few bandages and water to clean the blood.

Angel took the items and in silence cleaned Buffy's belly, she didn't say a word either, she was just staring at her former lover, it was then when she realized that even that she's loved again after he left, she hasn't felt this kind of love, so strong, full of passion and pain, yet so pure and everlasting.

Anne watched her parents and recognized the love for each other in their eyes, even in her time after many years they have the same sparkle when they're together.

When Angel finished with the bandage, he pulled Buffy's shirt down, she put her hands over his; by instinct he held her hands as protective and tenderly as he always held her.

Their moment was interrupted when they heard Anne grunting, they turned to see caused that and saw her sitting on the floor rubbing her nose.

"Crashing against a wall is more painful than it looks," she says while Wyatt hurried to her side.

"Did you crash?" he asked placing his hand over his shoulder, he was relieved when he felt that her shoulder was solid. Anne jumped to her feet and held her boyfriend.

"I kinda got used to the incorporeal part… distances were shorter….I can't walk through walls anymore!!! No more ghostly me!" she said cheerily.

"Must be because Buffy is safe now," deduced Paige.

"Let's make sure we all remain safe," added Dawn.

Wyatt stared into space as if hearing something, "Mr. Giles has something, he's calling me, I'll be right back," he said giving a small kiss on his girlfriend's cheek.

After a couple of minutes Wyatt and Giles orbed in, the British man carrying a big, thick old book, the cover was hard to identify due to it's oldness.

"I think I found a spell that can come quite handy in our situation."

"That's the Giles I missed… all British even when the world's at stake… again," interrupted Xander with a small grin, getting one in return from Giles as he remembered the old days.

"This is an ancient magic book, it's translation was lost in time, but it has references in other dead languages, I believe we will be able to work on it," the Watcher explained.

"Are you sure this book can help us?" asked Willow

"If I remember correctly, there's a spell to give… uhm, or return flesh, in a matter of speaking, to spirits and creatures that can't walk into our dimension.

"If we use it on the First…" Willow spoke, her eyes reflecting enthusiasm.

"…we could kick its ass." Finished Buffy

"Yes, that's the plan," Giles added, "but I'm afraid it's going to take us some time to translate the right spell, and some parts of the text can't be read, this book isn't in prime conditions."

"Maybe we could improvise, fill in the blanks, after all, we're witches, improvise spells is what we do," Phoebe suggested.

"Very well then," Giles started to flip over pages, soon he opened the page he needed having bookmarked it the first time he found it. "But I have to warn you, this book is known for its dark origins, so basically this is a book on dark magic…"

There was a silence in the room.

"Is that our only shot?" asked Willow , doubt in her voice.

"I'm afraid so…"

"That could be our plan B!" offered Paige after yet another couple of minutes of silence, receiving confused glances from everybody she continued, "that dark spell thingy can help us against the First, but we've defeated the Source before, maybe if we do a stronger potion against him, we might be able to vanquish him... and maybe the First would retreat… after loosing his ally…." She trailed off when she noticed she still was receiving confused looks.

"I think that's our best bet, dealing with dark forces might be dangerous and harmful," said Leo.

"Tell me about it," chuckled Willow embarrassed.

Then, we deal with the Source first… that's fine… but just in case, Giles, could you start working on the spell translation? In case we might need it?" the blonde Slayer asked.

The watcher nodded. The Halliwells, including Wyatt and Chris headed to the kitchen to make the potion.

Shortly the potion was ready, but they still needed a part of the Source's flesh to make it more effective. Faith asked to be orbed back to the crater, where the slayers were still fighting and hopefully find the Source. Wood obviously didn't aprove the idea, and in fact Faith wasn't thrilled about going but someone had to go and get the flesh. After some discussion on who should go, Buffy came with an idea.

"The knife!" the blonde remembered, "I stabbed him with it, there should be some remains or flesh don't you think?"

"Or blood..." added Piper, "blood works too, and you stabbed him when he was one with the First, so maybe that blood will be more than enough to vanquish the Source in his normal form."

"Ok, I'll go get it," said Paige standing up from her seat, "I'll just orb, look for it and orb it to my hand, I'll be back soon," waiting for no reply she orbed away; and just this once luck must be on her side because even in the middle of the mayhem caused by the slayers fighting the demons, she easily saw the knife on the ground where the Source/First threw it after being stabbed, calling for it, Paige held it by the handle and orbed out of there before anyone could notice it.

Back at the Halliwell manor, Spike let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding when he saw the youngest sister orb back in.

"Got it" she said handing the dagger to Piper who headed back to the kitchen.

After a short time an explotion could be heard, meaning that the potion was ready.

"It's ready people," informed Piper coming out from the kitchen carrying five vials of potion and giving them to her sisters and sons, one each, "I suggest we go first, we've dealt with the Source before, but if something goes wrong you guys can still do something to stop him, there's potion left in the kitchen."

Receiving nods, Phoebe and Paige stood next to Piper who looked at his sons from the future, and hoping that his still young sons are safe with Coop at Phoebe's place.

"I have a plan," declared Buffy a after the Halliwells orbed away.

**The Hellmouth**

* * *

The Halliwells appeared in the crater, the scene indicated that the slayers managed to hold back the demons, the Seal on the ground was blocked with dirt and rocks, they were big rocks so they assumed that the slayers placed them there on purpose.

Some slayers were wounded but luckly they were all breathing, over the ground several bodies were lying, none of the bodies were human.

The Source and the First, looking as Prue, were still there; but in spite of the fact that the Slayers took defeated their demons, the two of them seemed calm, unworryed.

The First noticed the orbing persons, and smiled hapily, the Halliwells walked straight to the two evils, determination in their faces.

"I was hoping to see you again," said 'Prue' warmly, "we've got plans for you,"

"Save it," Piper interrupted, "we came for him," without waiting for a reply and giving no chance to do anything, Piper threw her vial at the Source who looked down at the wet spot the potion left on his robe.

"This won't help you witch!" the Source ran towards Piper knocking her down. She used her power to blow him up, but it only made him step backwards, this gave the others the chance to act. The Source found himself being hit with four vials, and heard how five voices started chanting.

"Prudence, Patricia, Penelope, Melinda, Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace;" the family of Charmed ones chanted the spell they've used before "Halliwell witches stand strong beside us;  
vanquish this evil from time and space."

The Source screamed in agony as a swirl of flames surrounded him, the slayers stared in awe how this evil was being defeated; "that wasn't too hard," said Phoebe with relief as the Source was vanquishing in their presence.

The First didn't look surprised by this, taking its real form, extended its arm to where the Source was dying, being unaffected by the flames or the spell, the First started absorbing what was left of the Source's power.

None of the present knew what the First was doing, they didn't know what to expect. Suddenly, when the flames dissapeared leaving no trail of the Source, the First raised both of his clowed hands sending a ray of energy up to the sky, that ray separated in many smaller rays of energy that were making their way back to the grownd, if it wasn't by the fact that it was evin energy, it would be a beautiful view, as if millions of shooting stars were falling around all the persons in the crater.

The Charmed ones and Slayers were watching the energy flow, then the next thing they saw was nothing but black.

**San Francisco**

* * *

"I can't sense them anymore!" Leo's hurried words full of worry and concern were heard through the manor.


	11. Chapter 11

"I can't sense them anymore!" Leo's hurried words full of worry and concern were heard through the manor.

"Wyatt…" Anne whispered, "we have to go, something must had gone wrong," she spoke louder in a commanding voice.

"You're right, but we're not ready yet," Buffy answered, some worry was evident in her tone too.

"But mom! I can't stay here and do nothing!" she complained.

Buffy understood her perfectly, she knew exactly how her future daughter was feeling, and she knew that just asking her not to go wouldn't work. "I know… look, I worry about them, and about you too, and I don't like the idea of you going back there… but I trust you, I know you'll be fine," she said honestly to her daughter, even though she only met her recently, she feels as if she's known her for a long time, the bond between them is undeniable. "Leo, take them to the hellmouth, Faith, Willow and I will stay behind, we'll call us when we're ready," Buffy took charge, nobody argued .

"Be careful… all of you," Angel said before standing close to Leo to be orbed along with Nikky, Anne, Wood and Spike.

"You too," replied Buffy.

"Watch your backs," said Faith to Nikky and Robin.

"Looks like we're ready to start," Willow said unsure once the group orbed away. She was reading the book Giles brought while he was unzipping a bag.

Earlier when the Halliwells left, Buffy asked Leo to orb her back to her place in Rome, she wanted to retrieve the bag that has been passed on from Slayer to Slayer, the one Robin gave her in Sunnydale.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Giles asked placing the shadow casters figures on a table.

"Not really, but I'm thinking that if you can make the First to turn corporeal, we still might need more power," replied Buffy with a sigh and turned to Faith, "you don't have to do this if you don't want."

"It's ok B, if you do it I'll do it, I want to defeat the First so that Nikky has a safe future," declared the rouge slayer.

Buffy's plan was to go back to look for the Shadow men and take the power they offered when they met, but that was only if Willow agreed on casting the spell to turn the First into a corporeal being. She wasn't going to do anything her friends wouldn't want to do, but Willow and Faith agreed on her plan, they all wanted to get rid of the First, or at least stop him until the new generation were ready to stand against it.

Giles at first wasn't sure of it, but in the end he agreed on helping Willow to cast the spell.

But one thing was plan it, other was execute it. First, they worked on the creation of the portal to the Shadow men.

"First, there is the Earth, then there came the demons, after demons there came men, men found a girl, and the men took the girl to fight all demons, they chained her to the Earth, you cannot be shown, you cannot just watch, but you must see for yourself, but only if you're willing to make the exchange," Willow read as Giles placed the representation figures around the candle.

They watched as the shadow casters started spinning on its own, and the shadows around the room seemed to become alive. Finally the portal opened.

"Good luck," said Giles to both Slayers who crossed the portal. And a few seconds later, two demons came in return, but this time, Giles and Willow were ready for the exchange, Willow almost effortlessly made lighting bolts go out of her hands straight to the demons, electrocuting them and finally both fell dead to the floor.

"Well, now it's up to them to do the rest, we have to do our part here," Giles said and Willow nodded.

**The Hellmouth**

Leo orbed everyone to the crater, but to their surprise, it wasn't a crater anymore, it was a huge plain desert, but in the very middle, in the same spot where once the high school was, stood now what looked like the frame of a door. It was 30 ft tall all made of stone, with engravings in the edges, and above in the center, a representation of the seal of Danzhaltar. The middle of the structure, where one would assume the door could be, a layer of energy could be visible, it was like watching a wall made of clear water, but the vibe coming out from it was only evil energy.

Leo, Angel, Spike, Robin, Nikky and Anne stood in front of the door frame.

"This must be the access to the Hellmouth," supposed Angel.

"Not underground anymore," added Spike, "too bad we don't have the cheap necklace to close it again."

"Shall we?" asked Nikky while crossing it.

"We shall" agreed Anne walking right behind her, the others following their lead.

Inside, they could hear agonizing screams coming from all directions, and several growls echoing through the place. But all they could see was dirt everywhere, it was like the Underworld but instead of all being tunnels, they were in the middle of what looked like a maze formed with stones.

Leo touched lightly with his shoulder one of the stoned walls and he felt as if he was burning, "stay away from the walls," he warned wincing a little in pain.

The group roamed through the maze, but they weren't getting anywhere, they didn't even know where they were heading, all they cared about was find the Halliwell family.

"We've been here before," Spike stated.

"I don't think so, this doesn't look familiar," replied Leo looking at their surroundings.

"Maybe not to you mate," Spike bent down and picked something up, "But this surely does," he shows them a cigarette tail, "dropped this a while ago."

"The walls... They move," assumed Leo.

Nikky scoffs, "You should think of quitting with the smoke, you're not immortal anymore."

"Hard to get rid of good old habits pet," answered the bleached man placing another cigarette between his lips, but stops before the fire of his lighter fires it, "bollocks, is there anything I should know about the future?" asked somewhat mocking.

"Just saying pal," replied the brunette Slayer with a small chuckle.

"Wait," Angel interrupted, "I think i've picked their scent," he trailed jogging to a hall ahead, the others following close behind.

**Somewhere in a cave**

"There you are," Buffy said in a casual tone entering the cave, Faith walking next to her. "I like what you've done to this place, it looks..." she looks around, "...exactly the same." Both Slayers stop in front of a group of men, none of them seemed surprised to see both women standing there.

"We knew you'd be back," the leader of the men said while standing up, he was speaking in his native language but none had problems understanding each other.

"Yeah, well, we don't have time for the cryptic stuff, you should know why we're here," Buffy said, arms crossed.

"You rejected the power once," the man accused as he started to walk around them. The rest of the men stood up and placed themselves around the slayers.

"That was then, this is now, and I haven't rejected anything yet," Faith intervened.

"We want the power, now," Buffy added looking at the man straight in the eyes, "but under our conditions."

**San Francisco**

"Well, I think this might be enough," Willow told Giles handing him a piece of paper where she just finished with the translation of the spell in the book Giles brought.

"Good job Willow," the british man said after reading it.

**Hellmouth**

Angel had been leading the others, running through moving walls, focused only on the scent he got of the Halliwells, he was feeling it stronger with every turn he took. But soon they were intercepted by demons. Leo was the first one to attack them, using his power to send lighting bolts at their enemies. Nikky and Anne fought against the ones trying to escape Leo's attack and Angel, Spike and Wood were fighting the ones who managed to reach them from behind.

When they defeated all, Angel concentrated again on the scent, "we're getting close."

"I hope so captain forehead, I'm getting tired with the whole needing to breathe stuff," Spike complained trying to catch his breath while running, "guess I'll consider quitting," he said turning lightly to Nikky referring to the cigarettes.

They got a glimpse of a light ahead, and started to run faster. Finally they found them, all alive but suspended in mid air, the First in his original horned form was below them, an energy ball forming between its clawed hands.

"What do we do?" Asked Nikky as they all got a better sight of the scene.

"Well, we wanted to find them... There they are," Anne replied wondering what to do.

"Now we fight," Angel said when he saw more demons, vampires and ubervamps coming at them.

The First noticed them but didn't lose focus on summoning his power, he wasn't worried at all by them being down there.

"You'll see, once we get free you'll regret it," Piper menaced at it feeling a little relieved when she saw her husband and friends.

While Anne, Nikky, Angel, Spike and Wood were fighting, Leo got closer to the first and attacked him with his lighting bolts, but did no damage. With this, the First turned his attention to him, "I could use that power," the first evil said with his deep voice, and with a movement of his clawed hand he made Leo raise in the air and float next to his family unable to move.

**San Francisco**

At the manor, near where the corpses of the exchange demons laid, the portal reopened, Faith and Buffy crossed back and threw de demons back inside making the portal disappear.

"Everything went all right?" asked Giles to the Slayers receiving only a nod from both of them in response.

Buffy raised her hands and immediately the Scythe appeared in them. Faith stood facing the senior Slayer and raised her hands as well, in her hands appeared the dagger that the Mayor gave her years ago; energy transferred from the scythe to the dagger and it changed into a short sword, the blade kept its shape but was larger now, and the handle grew a little so it fit Faiths grip, also it changed colors, the blade was half red, half silver, matching the scythe, both weapons were glowing in synchronization.

"Will, transport us to the Hellmouth," Buffy said to her friend, who nodded and grabbed a bag containing some crystals.

Willow's eyes and hair turned white, and with a jolt of energy the four disappeared.

**The Hellmouth**

The four appeared near the Hellmouth's gate, "As soon as we find everybody else, start with the spell, and once it's done, get everybody out," Buffy commanded.

They entered the gate and found themselves in the same maze the others were at. The Slayers closed their eyes and focused, they enhanced senses caught the essences of all the demons down there, and when they identified the essence of the First they headed its way.

"We don't have time for mazes," Faith said in an even tone, she touched a wall and felt it as fire, "this won't hold us," added with a grin and with one single strong punch she destroyed that wall, the next wall in front of them was destroyed by Buffy.

Kicking and punching they opened their way in straight line to where they could feel the First, and also they felt the essences of their families and friends, Willow and Giles were following close behind.

Meanwhile, Angel could hear the sound of walls being destroyed, he could feel Buffy, just as he always has felt her when she was around. He was bleeding already from some injuries, Spike, Wood, Nikky and Anne weren't in better conditions, the more enemies they defeated, the more they came.

The First finished summoning its energy and gathered it in a huge golden ball in front of him, that energy ball started to absorb the powers and energy of all the Halliwell family that were still suspended in mid air.

The Slayers broke the last wall that separated them from the rest. Both of them, started to fight the demons and vampires that were attacking their family, slicing their weapons unstoppably, no enemies stood a chance against them. In no time, they were all vanquished and dusted leaving only the First.

"Once I get the powers of the Charmed ones line, I'll be unstoppable," the First declared with a menacing grin.

"We have to say the spell all together," Willow said looking up straight at all the Halliwells, they all nodded.

"No spell is strong enough to defeat me, I've been here forever and forever will remain," the First menaced.

The red haired witch placed the crystals she brought on the ground and sat next to them.

"Lords of the light and dark, guardians of the gate, of the barrier twixt order and chaos, hear our pleas. This abomination, a wound upon the world, must be sealed. This specter must be anchored to the world of flesh. Now return form and weight, now return blood and bone. Take this spirit and make of it flesh," Willow and Giles started to read from the spell Willow translated from the book.

The Halliwells echoed their words, when they were done, the crystals started shinning and magically flew towards the First disappearing in the middle of its incorporeal chest.

"What is this?" the evil entity asked as he felt something warm in his chest. He lost his focus and the energy ball that was absorbing the Halliwell's powers stopped doing so and they fell to the ground.

"Never thought I'd be so glad to be grounded," Paige said rising to her feet, she and her sisters went next to Willow and Giles as they began the chanting again.

Leo healed Anne, Nikky, Wood and Spike.

When the witches ended the spell for the second time, the First screamed, and his chest glowed brighter due to the crystals.

"It's working," Faith said when she saw that he was becoming solid.

"Get ready," Buffy replied.

Both closed their eyes and their weapons glowed in unison, energy flowed from them and covered the slayer's bodies. When they opened their eyes they had a magical yellow glow.

"Mom?" asked Anne approaching carefully.

"What happened to you?" asked Nikky following Anne's pace.

"Get out, we'll deal," both slayers spoke at the same time, "go to the gate, don't let any demon get out."

"We've done our part here, we have to go!" Willow called everybody.

Reluctantly, everybody but Buffy and Faith followed Willow.

"Stop!" Yelled the First, his voice echoing through the chamber, he raised his now corporeal hands and a magic force field surrounded the contained place.

"We're trapped!" Willow said looking straight at Buffy and Faith.

From another inner tunnel, the First's army of followers started to come out.

"You'll all die down here, and then no one will stop me!" were the First's words.

"Then you'll die too," both slayers answered in sync.

The two of them ran towards the First, whom even though he was huge in size, moved really fast, he swung his big arm to hit the approaching Slayers, Buffy dodged the attack by sliding over the ground and Faith jumped.

The blonde used her momentum to kick the First's legs, he fell on his back and saw as Faith was attacking him from the air, her weapon ready for the stab. It happened so fast that the First barely had time to move away, Faith was aiming for where she assumed his heart would be, if he had a heart at all, but the First moved lightly so she stabbed him in the shoulder.

Buffy was fast on her feet and ready to slice the First's throat with the Scythe but he blocked the attack with his forearm. The scythe hurt him but not deadly, he was soon on his feet and punched Buffy really hard, sending her flying backwards to a wall of the chamber, with the impact of her body the wall cracked and made a hole.

Anne saw how her mother was smashed against the wall, she ran to help her, but to her surprise Buffy stood as if nothing happened and moved towards the First who was now grabbing Faith by the throat.

Buffy launched herself at the First, ready to swing the Scythe, but the First sensed her and turned quickly, placing Faith between him and Buffy's approaching attack. The blonde seeing this, instead of swing the weapon, threw it as a spear at the First's thigh and when she got closer kicked his arm so he released his grip on Faith.

The rouge slayer used her own weapon to hurt the First's other leg, she stabbed him on the side of his knee and when he was down on his knees both slayers placed on each side of him and at the same time both delivered a roundhouse kick hitting the First in the chest, he was thrown backwards several feet due to the impact which was felt by the others because of the force of the hit.

In the meantime, the others were fighting as best as they could against the horde of demons that were attacking. And in spite of being involved in fights, they all noticed how different Buffy and Faith were now. They were fighting as if they were one, together and not in each other's way, it was as if the slayers knew exactly what was on each other's minds, and also nobody missed in notice their glowing eyes.

With the force of the blow, the First lost his concentration and the force field he put around the place disappeared.

"Everyone get out!" Buffy commanded.

"Now!" Faith ordered right after the blonde.

"We can't leave you, there's too many demons, you two can't take them on your own!" Nikky complained to them.

The Slayers noticed the rest of the demons, they were so focused on the First that they didn't realized that they were surrounded.

Both looked at each other and nodded, their eyes glowed brighter and their weapons started to glow as well, they placed them together and both pointing to the ground, the scythe's wooden end aligned together with the dagger's sharp one. The two slayers held both weapons and in one single strong movement hit the ground, the impact of the glowing weapons was so hard that the ground started to shake.

The power of the impact added to the energy of the weapons, affected all the demons, mortally wounding some and killing others.

"Leave!" both slayers commanded.

"No!" Anne opposed, not seeing that the first was running towards her to hit her.

"Watch out!" Buffy warned as she raced to get her daughter out of harm's way.

The blonde made it just in time, she pushed Anne out of the way receiving herself the full impact of the First, both crashing against a wall of the cave in a bone crushing hit.

"Mom!" "Buffy!" Anne and Angel called at the same time.

Faith was soon near Buffy and the First, she pulled the First's off of Buffy, "u ok B?" asked to her sister slayer,

"Now I'm pissed," replied the blonde.

"Good," said Faith with a grin while helping her up. By then Anne and Angel made their way to them.

"I told you to leave, we can't focus knowing you might be in danger here, trust us, we'll be fine," reassured Buffy to her family who were amazed at the speed of Buffy's healing, the wounds were closing right in front of their eyes.

"Also we have a plan," added Faith.

"Ok, be safe… both of you," said Angel.

The First started to raise to his feet.

"Everybody out!" Angel ordered, everybody followed.

"Now let's finish this," Faith said when they all left. She handed her weapon to Buffy, "bring this down."

"Don't die," replied Buffy with a loop sided smile remembering when she said this after they met.

Faith attacked the First in a hand to hand way, both receiving and giving effective hits.

Buffy took both slayers' weapons in a similar way as they held them before, with the sharp ends pointing downwards, and hit the ground again and again, the walls started to crack and was falling apart.

Outside the Hellmouth, on the surface, everyone else was just outside the gate.

"Is this an earthquake?" Chris wondered.

"It's coming from beneath," Leo assured.

Suddenly some parts of the ground started to sink, not as big as it was when they first destroyed the hellmouth, but still enough to make them all back away from the gate for safety.

"What happened?" wondered Wood out loud.

"I think the Hellmouth is being destroyed," Willow said.

"And where are they?" asked with some fear Nikky wondering where the senior Slayers were.


End file.
